I finished Read Only Memories a while ago, so this review is not written with the game fresh in my mind. This is a fun and engaging point-and-click adventure/mystery game, with likeable characters and strong dialogue. The pacing is great, the tension is high, and the story explores a wide variety of cyberpunk themes - what it means to be alive or human, what tech might do to politics, and the impact that corporatisation has on people's lives.
The game is also very obviously queer and does this well, with multiple characters whose identities do not fall within the gender binary (both human and non-human). At one point your companion Turing - the first sentient robot, and one of the highlights of the game - muses on how gender has impacted him and the robots who preceded him.
The story, although taking itself seriously, manages to let through some genuinely heart-warming and some delightfully silly moments - at one point, you must help an up and coming rapper come up with lyrics by using the objects in your environment, which results in some sick bars.
Speaking of the environment, it is both rich and has very pretty pixel graphics. All interactable objects have multiple lines of flavour text, all of which are worth the time to read, so if you're at all like me you'll be sat on each screen clicking on anything just to find something new.
I loved 2064: Read Only Memories, and have very few qualms with it beyond:
- wanting to click on all the objects occasionally led to gameplay pacing issues where instead of following somewhere that was supposedly urgent I would sit and read all the flavour text
- One of the lead designers is less than pleasant, which makes me hesitant to recommend you give your money to him - I would still recommend it if you have your hands on a copy that you haven't paid for.
The game is also very obviously queer and does this well, with multiple characters whose identities do not fall within the gender binary (both human and non-human). At one point your companion Turing - the first sentient robot, and one of the highlights of the game - muses on how gender has impacted him and the robots who preceded him.
The story, although taking itself seriously, manages to let through some genuinely heart-warming and some delightfully silly moments - at one point, you must help an up and coming rapper come up with lyrics by using the objects in your environment, which results in some sick bars.
Speaking of the environment, it is both rich and has very pretty pixel graphics. All interactable objects have multiple lines of flavour text, all of which are worth the time to read, so if you're at all like me you'll be sat on each screen clicking on anything just to find something new.
I loved 2064: Read Only Memories, and have very few qualms with it beyond:
- wanting to click on all the objects occasionally led to gameplay pacing issues where instead of following somewhere that was supposedly urgent I would sit and read all the flavour text
- One of the lead designers is less than pleasant, which makes me hesitant to recommend you give your money to him - I would still recommend it if you have your hands on a copy that you haven't paid for.