Fugue In Void has a few interesting ideas, but ends up yet another extremely self-indulgent walking simulator that is shockingly bereft of substance. Where other, better examples of the genre have interesting things to say and things to show, this game simply insists on its profundity while never doing anything that warrants it.

4 / 10
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So, this is a weird one. Typically, when I review games on this platform, no matter how good or bad or inconsistent, they are still games. They have a beginning and end, goals, missions, enemies, etc. No matter how god or bad, I’m still able to criticise something on those merits. With Fugue In Void, it’s different. This is not a game. Or, at least, I don’t think it’s trying to be one. At most, it could be considered a so called “art house game”. But really, it’s more of an ““interactive”” art / architecture installation, although that part might be debatable too. So why do I feel the need to review this? Well, for one, sometimes I do enjoy a good walking-simulator / indie-avantgarde-lookatmeiamsosmart pseudo-game if it has something interesting going on. You know, stuff like Proteus, The Beginner’s Guide, Kairo, Mirrormoon EP, etc. So it’s not like I completely lack the framework of talking about something like this. Second - and really, most importantly - this “game” costs 6 whole, real life, human dollars on Steam. That is pretty wild, considering that most of the pieces in this genre tend to be either free-to-play or extremely cheap, and also considering that FIV does have some performance issues as well.

Since this game isn’t even an hour long, I’ll try to be as brief as possible, since I don’t wanna talk longer about a game than it took me to beat it [EDIT: well, that didn’t work lol], so I’ll cut to the chase. It’s extremely obvious that FIV takes heavy inspiration from one game in particular, and that is NaissanceE. Made by Spanish developer Mavros Sedeño in 2014, NaissanceE is a walking-simulator / first-person platformer set inside a colossal megastructure, itself deeply influenced by Tsutomu Nihei’s 1998 manga “BLAME!”, and is one of my favourite games ever made - not because of any amazing design elements or particularly crazy ideas, more than it has a specific idea about an experience it wants to deliver and does so damn near flawlessly. It is a game fundamentally built on the idea of the purpose of architecture, the feeling of being dwarfed by structures built BY humans but not FOR them. It’s about navigating the dream-like spaces of the near-infinite, about taking the abstract concepts of BLAME! and infusing them with meaning by turning them into gameplay elements. FIV on the other hand, feels like it doesn’t even really know what it tries to go for.

I want to quickly point out the things I did like about it. The architecture on display is fairly impressive and I especially enjoyed the abstract, experimental drone-heavy soundtrack. There are some moments which manage to elicit the same kind of beautiful alienation you’d experience with its role model, NaissanceE, although sadly this happens more on the latter’s back, rather than through the unique merits of FIV. The visual language that’s being used feels very cryptic and interesting, and I like how much the visuals of this game play with texture and plasticity. The atmosphere is, overall, sufficient. But that’s pretty much it. With a game this short, I’m struggling to find more to talk about.

So, before I we get more into it, I have to criticise how terrible accessibility has been handled here. I have seen very few games with so little regard for it. First off, considering the amount of bright, flashing lights used here, the fact that there is no epilepsy warning whatsoever strikes me as very irresponsible. Second, while understand the decision to not include a save system in this game - since it’s meant to be a thing you experience in one sitting - I do NOT understand the complete lack of any pause option. I’m sorry dev, but the experience your “game” provides is not worth letting my pizza burn in the oven or letting the postman leave with my package because I couldn’t open the door. It’s not like it serves any particular gameplay purpose or anything, it really seems like this is simply the dev’s method of forcing you to stay in front of the computer for the whole duration. What’s worse though, is the fact that this decision comes with the added side effect that you can’t change ANY settings in the game whatsoever. None. Nothing. You can’t chose performance mode, you can’t change the FOV, lighting, mouse acceleration, key binds, you can’t even turn off (or even reduce) the fucking motion blur, which is a cardinal sin for me personally, since I get severe headaches from it. The ONLY thing you’re allowed to change is the resolution, and that’s only on the launcher that pops up before the game starts. Honestly, I’m not even sure how to even properly quit the game, I had to use the Task Manager to simply close the program. The launcher even features 2 entirely fake options, one being “graphical quality”, with precisely one option to chose, namely “fancy”. (which, I assume includes the motion blur)

So, finally, onto the actual ”game”. Starting with a 10-minute long, uninterruptible AND unskippable cutscene (I guess “abstract imagery in video form” is more accurate) when the entire experience isn’t even an hour long is certainly one hell of a move. One could even describe it as “radical” - but only if one were to misunderstand the meaning of the word. The animations are certainly beautiful, and the use of different textures and surfaces is interesting. In terms of abstract / applied art, or viewed as a virtual gallery / art exhibition it may or may not challenge our perception of how these things might work; however with a game, this approach strikes me as deeply regressive and antithetical to what is truly avant-garde within the field of game design. Interactivity is to me the core, the beating heart of what actually differentiates games as art from other media. That is not to say that all games have to work the same way, or even feature traditional gameplay. Again, I have a massive soft spot for more abstract experiences like this, from tiny indie games like Proteus, Babbdi and of course NaissanceE, to massive AAA experiences like Death Stranding. I love radical, abstract games that challenge what the medium is even capable of. This is not it. This is essentially an architectural exhibition masquerading as a video game, and that would be fine if it would at least commit to it.

Structurally, FIV simply leads you through a couple of short walking-sections, interspersed with longer sections (at least they FEEL a lot longer) in which you can’t move and are forced to watch the infuriatingly slow-moving animations of shadows and light moving across the screen. Similarly, the character’s movement speed is agonisingly sluggish. There is a sprint option, but it feels like what the default walking speed ought to have been. I will never understand why devs in this genre insist upon turtle-speed being the definitive experience. What’s worse is that the walking sections are on a timer, meaning if you DO find yourself in the position where you want to stop and stare just a little longer - which seems like its entire raison d’être - you better not take too long. The game this reminds me the most of is Awkward Dimensions Redux, and seeing how that one may just take the title for “the worst game I have ever played” this comparison truly does it no favours what so ever. It’s even down to both apparently having been “inspired by [the dev’s] dreams” and both having zero interest in your role as the player. To them, you as the player exist merely to experience THEIR vision. YOU are only here to enjoy whatever THEY dictate your experience to be. For me good art - doubly so when it comes to games - is, to me, a conversation. A back and forth between artist and beholder, dev and player, etc. The artist creates a work, and the beholder imbues it with meaning. Much like Awkward Dimensions Redux, this game feels more like someone strapping you to a chair and making you watch their holiday pictures. This feeling only worsens when you realise that there are invisible walls everywhere, including the sides of stairs and even the smallest ledges so there’s absolutely no way you’re not going through this thing in the exact manner the dev intended. It’s as if the game actively fights you on every step when trying to participate in the experience, trying to make it your own.

I wish I could at least compliment the game on its aesthetic and the feeling that the colossal, brutalist architecture commends, but that would be very disingenuous, since its visual identity does draw so heavily from NaissanceE it feels like I’m actually complementing THAT game. Even its visually most impressive moment - a short section where you walk through a colourful desert with a humongous structure looming over your head - is taken straight out of NaissanceE, except that game did it so much better, letting you take your time and really reflect on what you’re experiencing in this moment, something Fugue In Void seems to be hellbent on preventing.

From a look at Moshe Linke’s (the dev) homepage, it seems that he specialises in these architecture-based walking simulators, making me think that perhaps he has a background in that field. That is perfectly fine, and please do not understand this as me saying that all games need to follow similar formulas or can’t get weird with their structure. I LOVE when games get weird and experimental. It’s one particular phrase from Linke’s website that really irks me in the context of this game. He states that his work is “A fusion between art and games”; and THAT is precisely the problem. Games already ARE art. Games do not need to be “fused with art”. The very concept of interactivity, and games’ ability to enter a direct conversation with their beholder imbue them with a power completely alien to other media. And this is precisely what strikes me as pretentious; that Linke - and many other developers within this subcategory - seems to think that his curtailing of video games’ unique abilities and strengths by attempting to approximate the experience of a virtual art gallery in the same way that mid-2000’s AAA developers sought to make gaming more “cinematic” by spending all of their budget on creating as many, overly long cutscenes as possible. Games do not need to be “like other media”.

Now, my tone here may strike you as harsh, but I feel like that, if you’re out here asking for 6$ for your highly avant-garde virtual architecture installation / dream journal, when there are plenty of similar experiences out there that are way more interesting, offer way more in terms of deconstructing the concept of gaming, are way more interested in your actions and feelings and also typically cost no money (or at least, way less) then I feel like you really ought to have something to offer that warrants that price. I’ve played plenty of shitty walking simulators made by people that enjoy the smell of their own farts and I rarely feel like I have to call them out.

Ultimately, rating this game is very difficult. I did enjoy the music and the imagery, which is the bulk of the experience, but I really dislike almost everything else. I wouldn’t say I hated the experience as such - it’s way too short for it to warrant active hate - and I think that in the context of an actual art installation, where, for example, all of these levels were individual things you could pick from a list, wearing a VR headset in a large atelier or studio or museum or whatever, might’ve been really interesting. But I simply think that - IF you are going to put your work on Steam - this type of experience must accommodate the fact that they are meant to be played at home. After work. After being done with your day, when you just want to turn on your PC and play something fun or interesting. And that’s not impossible. NaissanceE managed. Dear Esther, Gone Home, Yume Nikki, Scanner Sombre, Journey, etc, all of them managed. And yes, these games all attempt to work as games much more than Fugue in Void does, but they are also aware that they are, at the end of the day, also consumer products, and if you expect the same amount or even MORE money than the games mentioned above, you should expect the same level of scrutiny. Here’s hoping that Linke can make “Neon Entropy” into something more interesting, whenever it’ll be finished.


4 / 10