babbdi. this is a strange little title that became sort of a small fad within the independent gaming sphere in the last year or so. a solemn experience, as the lone world of babbdi is very much a brooding grey expanse, consisting of blocky, almost brutalist (sigh) skyscrapers and largely inaccessible buildings.. but within this small city there is much intrigue to be carried. while the civilians are distant and speak little, its difficult to not be captivated by the city, even comforted. these people have known this place for an innumerable amount of days and years and the only thing you can really do is sit with them and be within their presence, as even more decades and unravellings of time pass, swimming in the eternity of dullness

Fun movement mechanics and exploration; keys to my heart.

Even without items just running sliding and jumping around feels pretty good. A good chunk of the items you come across let you just completely break any sort of intended platforming challenge; but with them comes the new challenge of how you can get around in the most quick and efficient fashion.

It's hard to explain why it's so compelling to explore the city of Babbdi. It has some intensely Slavic atmosphere that's foreboding at first, almost comforting by the end. There's not much "content", in a game-y sense - you'll find some characters with a few lines of dialogue along the way, some odd scenes here and there, not much else. The city just feels fully realized in some sense, like you could potentially go anywhere and find exactly what you'd expect to be there.

Mostly a very atmospheric city to run around in - the scale feels both small enough to remember but huge enough to feel grand which is honestly its coolest part. The lighting and sound are big things that stuck out to me. Didn't know it used AI art till i saw reviews and double checked it - which is a bit disappointing. I feel like the best parts of this game were already there and it didn't need generated textures to feel uncanny.

One can assume it was the point to use AI to give that uncanny feel, but considering the current climate around it possibly taking my job, I really can't find enjoyment or artistic fulfillment in something like that. Just kinda how it is.

I'm conflicted on Babbdi because by all means I should really love it, and I do, but the discomfort isn't quite enough compared to something like Off-Peak that puts in a solid amount of effort to be a uniquely artistic and handcrafted piece on top of being "weird for weird's sake."
Babbdi's biggest flaw in this conversation is its use of AI textures to add to its eerie nature. Given, this was 2022 and it's still early Dall-E generation, as opposed to a "I couldn't afford an artist so here's an earnest attempt to make something look good with AI prompts," but we've all been through too much these past two years for me to look back on it and feel charmed by how bad it worked back then. It is, I'll say, effective at making the world feel sloppy and alien, and I would maybe even cite Babbdi as "the one good use of AI," but I think that would be contrary to everything me and my community have fought for as artists since this tech came out in the first place. If I think about it any longer, I start to imagine if this game had the same level of artistry as Cosmo D's games, then it starts to lower Babbdi's charm even more by comparison.
It's not a bad game, though! The setting is uniquely horrific, and the game guides you through its corpse with a wonderful movement system as you meet its inhabitants and find surreal rewards on your search for a ttain tricket ou toff toowm, t scseape Babbdi froeferver