ThinkingFella
2021
The Noodling simulator,
The nightmare of every bass player.
The nightmare of every bass player.
2021
Every design decision has to delete a whole world of possibilities to exist.
This game is an exercise in and a comment on exploring these worlds of possibilities.
The act of deckbuilding itself is a mirror to this creative process.
Choosing which cards to build the deck around is like choosing which iteration of an idea you want to build on. This is where inscription captivated me the most, as a beautiful work of art about reconceptualization. Don't leave anything on the cutting table, try the half baked stuff, but in a meta context that actually works because of it's sincerity.
I also loved when a stoner friend of mine told me to immediately delete the game after seeing his user name and picture on my enemies card. Lmao
This game is an exercise in and a comment on exploring these worlds of possibilities.
The act of deckbuilding itself is a mirror to this creative process.
Choosing which cards to build the deck around is like choosing which iteration of an idea you want to build on. This is where inscription captivated me the most, as a beautiful work of art about reconceptualization. Don't leave anything on the cutting table, try the half baked stuff, but in a meta context that actually works because of it's sincerity.
I also loved when a stoner friend of mine told me to immediately delete the game after seeing his user name and picture on my enemies card. Lmao
Link to the game: Dr.Langeskov..
Through it's own limited and single goal of merely existing amusingly aware of itself as a game, the crowscrowscrows formula of the meta-fictional "Stanley-like" walking sim, gets made and breaks by the quality and quantity of jokes the devs hide inside them - by the strength and length of the back and fourth, by just how many different narrator reactions can be triggered by the player's actions or non-actions and by how funny all of those are to the player.
If I wait long enough will something else happen?
No, this is a free game.
And that last line sounded pretty concluding, at least in it's verbiage even if the vocal delivery made it seem like he wasn't quite done talking.
What if I press this thing, or this thing, will each of those inputs by me contain a new line of dialogue by the narrator as a response?
No, most of them will not.
Writing good branching jokes can be hard and hiring Voice actors can be expensive.
Unfolding in the backstage hallways of a fictional heist game of which the player gets tasked to orchestrate the functions for the current "real player" and Dr. Langeskov structuring the gags around this, what turned for me out to be a sadly pretty one-note effort at a meta-narrative, appeard to be the only script he holds for the player.
In my first few minutes of play, the setup still seemed novel enough to lend itself for some creativity. Novel considering at the least when this got released, but like with a bad South Park episode the same joke over and over can get pretty boring if the execution lacks and the joke wasn't even that funny in the first place, turning your twenty minutes with it into an eye rolling exercise.
The most intense the voice actor gets in response to your action also doesn't stem from what you choose to do or didn't do. The game just won't even let you execute a specific interaction the narrator asks from the player. You can't pick up the ringing dial-phones placed in some areas, when you try to your player character lifts it up a bit just to hangs up.
Is this funny? That is completly subjective like all humour and all things probably.
But is it disappointing that the most passionate the game raises its voice at the player happens to be the result of it's own unaddressed limitations? I would argue so. If the game addressed this dissonance beforehand it might have worked better for me, but the narrator acts like I should be able to answer those calls, which in all honesty made me in that moment feel like I should be able to and just pressed the wrong inputs or something, and the "lmao you can't even do that" punchline fell kinda flat as a result.
Idk I think the game could've thematizised that lack of interplay, that Illusion of choice, but it rather wanted to make a gag without adressing any of it, which felt dull.
The first few minutes and rooms turned out to be the highlight, obviously because the joke just started, but also because the narrators need to rush the player combined with the environmental story telling he wants you to skip made the games world appear bigger than it actually is and confident in itself.
Once the Novelty wore completly off I just tried stuff to see if I got a reaction, but getting predominantly disappointed was mine.
I really enjoyed that you never see the "real game" and that all the tasks you take part in to make the other person's experience possible existed also to paint some interesting pictures in my head, but before I could properly draw them out the narrators voice always interrupted my thoughts with the same gag or some new medial task.
It should be obvious from the start that there won't be a heist for you to experience, but even if I saw the ending coming from a mile away I still enjoyed it's execution, at least enough to make the credits hit somewhat.
I am gonna stop doing this product review thing in which I try to boil a game down to the target audience it might appeal to, because it is antithetical to most of the things I usualy wanna achieve while writing and seems reductive. I'll have to learn how write a proper conclusion or some shit idk.
A proper conclusion
Through it's own limited and single goal of merely existing amusingly aware of itself as a game, the crowscrowscrows formula of the meta-fictional "Stanley-like" walking sim, gets made and breaks by the quality and quantity of jokes the devs hide inside them - by the strength and length of the back and fourth, by just how many different narrator reactions can be triggered by the player's actions or non-actions and by how funny all of those are to the player.
If I wait long enough will something else happen?
No, this is a free game.
And that last line sounded pretty concluding, at least in it's verbiage even if the vocal delivery made it seem like he wasn't quite done talking.
What if I press this thing, or this thing, will each of those inputs by me contain a new line of dialogue by the narrator as a response?
No, most of them will not.
Writing good branching jokes can be hard and hiring Voice actors can be expensive.
Unfolding in the backstage hallways of a fictional heist game of which the player gets tasked to orchestrate the functions for the current "real player" and Dr. Langeskov structuring the gags around this, what turned for me out to be a sadly pretty one-note effort at a meta-narrative, appeard to be the only script he holds for the player.
In my first few minutes of play, the setup still seemed novel enough to lend itself for some creativity. Novel considering at the least when this got released, but like with a bad South Park episode the same joke over and over can get pretty boring if the execution lacks and the joke wasn't even that funny in the first place, turning your twenty minutes with it into an eye rolling exercise.
The most intense the voice actor gets in response to your action also doesn't stem from what you choose to do or didn't do. The game just won't even let you execute a specific interaction the narrator asks from the player. You can't pick up the ringing dial-phones placed in some areas, when you try to your player character lifts it up a bit just to hangs up.
Is this funny? That is completly subjective like all humour and all things probably.
But is it disappointing that the most passionate the game raises its voice at the player happens to be the result of it's own unaddressed limitations? I would argue so. If the game addressed this dissonance beforehand it might have worked better for me, but the narrator acts like I should be able to answer those calls, which in all honesty made me in that moment feel like I should be able to and just pressed the wrong inputs or something, and the "lmao you can't even do that" punchline fell kinda flat as a result.
Idk I think the game could've thematizised that lack of interplay, that Illusion of choice, but it rather wanted to make a gag without adressing any of it, which felt dull.
The first few minutes and rooms turned out to be the highlight, obviously because the joke just started, but also because the narrators need to rush the player combined with the environmental story telling he wants you to skip made the games world appear bigger than it actually is and confident in itself.
Once the Novelty wore completly off I just tried stuff to see if I got a reaction, but getting predominantly disappointed was mine.
I really enjoyed that you never see the "real game" and that all the tasks you take part in to make the other person's experience possible existed also to paint some interesting pictures in my head, but before I could properly draw them out the narrators voice always interrupted my thoughts with the same gag or some new medial task.
It should be obvious from the start that there won't be a heist for you to experience, but even if I saw the ending coming from a mile away I still enjoyed it's execution, at least enough to make the credits hit somewhat.
I am gonna stop doing this product review thing in which I try to boil a game down to the target audience it might appeal to, because it is antithetical to most of the things I usualy wanna achieve while writing and seems reductive. I'll have to learn how write a proper conclusion or some shit idk.
A proper conclusion
2004
Trying to recall the exact events of a play session in Yume Nikki feels to an uncanny degree like trying to recall the exact events of a dream right after waking up.
Those kinds of dreams where it kinda felt like you had a nightmare, but you aren't quite sure if it actually was one. You can't remember how you got from one place to the next, if it was a single dream or multiple and even less what any of it meant.
It's also the kind of modern art that is so simple in concept and execution, yet nails its premise so effortlessly, that I can't help but hate that I didn't come up with it first lol. I can see how a similar thought process and admiration, shared among indie devs in the mid-2000s, inevitably led Yume Nikki to spawn its own sub-genre.
Those kinds of dreams where it kinda felt like you had a nightmare, but you aren't quite sure if it actually was one. You can't remember how you got from one place to the next, if it was a single dream or multiple and even less what any of it meant.
It's also the kind of modern art that is so simple in concept and execution, yet nails its premise so effortlessly, that I can't help but hate that I didn't come up with it first lol. I can see how a similar thought process and admiration, shared among indie devs in the mid-2000s, inevitably led Yume Nikki to spawn its own sub-genre.
2018
I wonder how this game would've been if it came out after outer wilds.
But at the same time one minute is so short that you can't really design interesting puzzles to be solved in that amount of time. I felt the whole game like I was just brute forcing everything. I couldn't bring myself to stand still for even a second and think about what I am doing because of how stressful the time limitations are. Once I realized that the progress in this game comes from picking up items I had no reason to even use my brain, just find all the items as fast as possible. This game clearly prioritizes speed running over thinking.
My clear favorite puzzle was the one with the bulldozer opening up a shortcut into the factory. For three specific reasons:
1. you don't need to first find an otherwise useless Metroidvania type item to solve the puzzle.
2. Everywhere in that vicinity are those robot arms for the player to interact and get familiar with so when you see the bulldozer you kinda already know what to do.
3. It opens up a short cut
The old school Zelda combat felt dull, I just ran past every enemy. The obligatory boss fight at the end felt like they ran out of ideas and just stuck to video game clichés.
The fact that they had to use multiple starting points makes it painfully obvious that one minute is to short.
The gimmick was the selling point, but damn it got old fast.
But at the same time one minute is so short that you can't really design interesting puzzles to be solved in that amount of time. I felt the whole game like I was just brute forcing everything. I couldn't bring myself to stand still for even a second and think about what I am doing because of how stressful the time limitations are. Once I realized that the progress in this game comes from picking up items I had no reason to even use my brain, just find all the items as fast as possible. This game clearly prioritizes speed running over thinking.
My clear favorite puzzle was the one with the bulldozer opening up a shortcut into the factory. For three specific reasons:
1. you don't need to first find an otherwise useless Metroidvania type item to solve the puzzle.
2. Everywhere in that vicinity are those robot arms for the player to interact and get familiar with so when you see the bulldozer you kinda already know what to do.
3. It opens up a short cut
The old school Zelda combat felt dull, I just ran past every enemy. The obligatory boss fight at the end felt like they ran out of ideas and just stuck to video game clichés.
The fact that they had to use multiple starting points makes it painfully obvious that one minute is to short.
The gimmick was the selling point, but damn it got old fast.
Showed 13 year old me what drone strikes look like while simultaneously activating dopamine in my brain for doing so. Pretty fucking disgusting imperialist propaganda
2019
I have been falling for so long I have forgotten what the ground looks like.
This was a digital euphoria I genuinely needed to help me float, at least for a short while.
An audio-visual feast, bite sized tabs of purple acid for my way too sober mind, hungry for a meaningful stimulation. Loose, soothing and forgiving.
I'll have to admit, the synth pop OST was hit or miss for me. I caught myself nodding along only three seperate times, but maybe I was just too enthralled in the whole experience to notice all the other times and nothing overstayed it's welcome anyway. It also reminded me that Debussy fucks hard.
Also crazy they got Queen Latifah in this to tell me I got a bronze rank.
Play this if you want a short but warm hug from a person rubbing some LSD onto your skin.
This was a digital euphoria I genuinely needed to help me float, at least for a short while.
An audio-visual feast, bite sized tabs of purple acid for my way too sober mind, hungry for a meaningful stimulation. Loose, soothing and forgiving.
I'll have to admit, the synth pop OST was hit or miss for me. I caught myself nodding along only three seperate times, but maybe I was just too enthralled in the whole experience to notice all the other times and nothing overstayed it's welcome anyway. It also reminded me that Debussy fucks hard.
Also crazy they got Queen Latifah in this to tell me I got a bronze rank.
Play this if you want a short but warm hug from a person rubbing some LSD onto your skin.
2023
Dithering monochrome, shifting baren museum halls viewed through quadratic window panes.
Framed laments hung up inside reject contextualisation and reduction via description, they only embrace the visitor's brief moments of Ascension to the other side of the frame.
An Exhibition too abract to make out, too esoteric to grasp, too short to stay in forever, but worth getting lost in and thankful that you came by.
The passages throughout it's labyrinth speak in feelings I know all too well.
The melancholic dialogue writing definitely hit the right spots for me, some of it reminded me of my own anti-capitalistic ass or even wordplaying compulsions.
In rare instances it fell on it's nose, but those few flew by fast and never halted the pace.
I was gonna spoil one legit bar here, but ///CODA is too short to leak any of it's text or contents any further than reviewing it does.
It's a surrealist, first-person exploration game, so probably the type of game meant to be experienced blind and it costs only like 4 bucks on steam.
The game has this simplistic bleakness in it's critic of profit motivated thinking, being fucking sad with the role you are meant to act in and just capitalistic hierarchies in general.
There is some brutalist minimalism, liminal space wankery in ///CODA, but even with all the worn out associations built-up inside the low-budget structures of indie horror it actually strengthens the narrative's fundament, serves its purpose to underlines a mood and exceeds the decorative gimmick, at least most of the time.
A liminal space is often defined as a transition period, going from one place to another and feeling lost or uneasy inside of that empty uncertainty.
Getting suddenly fired without a backup plan, waiting to finally work as someone who doesn't make you depressed, like walking in a gallery from one abstract, black and white piece to the next with too much naked wall in between.
One thing I have only referenced is how unique the UI and general presentation is. Honestly, I already used the words I wanted to describe it with in my pretentious intro soup. (I think writing the start or a part of my of reviews more like Song lyrics or whatever is gonna be my move now)
Just check out the steam page if you are up for something like this
There was one chapter, which to be frank, I sadly didn't care for at all. I am just gonna say it had some first-person platforming, a fetch-quest and my least favourite writing of the game. Other than that, some invisible walls, which always irk me and the fact that liminal spaces in general just feel a tad too uninspired even with a purpose in the majority of it's use, I'll have to knock the score down a bit. Maybe after a revisit, I'll bump it.
If you like weird, minimalic places with an unnerving atmosphere to wander around in, some sincere writing from which at least some lines will stick in your head, or just games with a museum as the hub then give this solo dev effort by Fin Deevy a try.
Framed laments hung up inside reject contextualisation and reduction via description, they only embrace the visitor's brief moments of Ascension to the other side of the frame.
An Exhibition too abract to make out, too esoteric to grasp, too short to stay in forever, but worth getting lost in and thankful that you came by.
The passages throughout it's labyrinth speak in feelings I know all too well.
The melancholic dialogue writing definitely hit the right spots for me, some of it reminded me of my own anti-capitalistic ass or even wordplaying compulsions.
In rare instances it fell on it's nose, but those few flew by fast and never halted the pace.
I was gonna spoil one legit bar here, but ///CODA is too short to leak any of it's text or contents any further than reviewing it does.
It's a surrealist, first-person exploration game, so probably the type of game meant to be experienced blind and it costs only like 4 bucks on steam.
The game has this simplistic bleakness in it's critic of profit motivated thinking, being fucking sad with the role you are meant to act in and just capitalistic hierarchies in general.
There is some brutalist minimalism, liminal space wankery in ///CODA, but even with all the worn out associations built-up inside the low-budget structures of indie horror it actually strengthens the narrative's fundament, serves its purpose to underlines a mood and exceeds the decorative gimmick, at least most of the time.
A liminal space is often defined as a transition period, going from one place to another and feeling lost or uneasy inside of that empty uncertainty.
Getting suddenly fired without a backup plan, waiting to finally work as someone who doesn't make you depressed, like walking in a gallery from one abstract, black and white piece to the next with too much naked wall in between.
One thing I have only referenced is how unique the UI and general presentation is. Honestly, I already used the words I wanted to describe it with in my pretentious intro soup. (I think writing the start or a part of my of reviews more like Song lyrics or whatever is gonna be my move now)
Just check out the steam page if you are up for something like this
There was one chapter, which to be frank, I sadly didn't care for at all. I am just gonna say it had some first-person platforming, a fetch-quest and my least favourite writing of the game. Other than that, some invisible walls, which always irk me and the fact that liminal spaces in general just feel a tad too uninspired even with a purpose in the majority of it's use, I'll have to knock the score down a bit. Maybe after a revisit, I'll bump it.
If you like weird, minimalic places with an unnerving atmosphere to wander around in, some sincere writing from which at least some lines will stick in your head, or just games with a museum as the hub then give this solo dev effort by Fin Deevy a try.
2021
"Aren't children's Toys kinda scary?"
"I mean, yea, they can be."
"How about we add some flashing red lights or just present it visually with a limited color palette of black, white and brownish reds, kinda like dried blood, aren't they even more scary now?"
"Well, a bit too.. stale, don't you think? But if the artstyle is intriguing enough it could be something.. at least."
"Isn't the nativity of a little kid not seeing how scary this is, EVEN MORE SCARY?"
"Eeehm, kind of, but isn't this in the same ball park of overplayed clichés as all the other idea's we had until now?"
"How about clicking on things? Isn't clicking on things and not knowing how to click or interact with them fucking terrifying?? Like a fear of the unknown!"
"No, not in the slightest. I don't think you even know what fear of the unknown means. That also seems like it would break the flow or immersion of whatever we are even trying to do."
"If we play a disturbing, scripted event after you click the intended and only possible way, I bet you will shit your pants though!!"
"Could we rethink thi.."
CHAPTER ONE DONE
"How about we make the second chapter a bit more interesting?"
"Okay, let's give it a kind of teletubies, happy tree friends vibe. I also think smiley balls are scary have I ever told you that?"
"Whatever"
"Also there will be a fail state"
CHAPTER TWO DONE
"The last chapter will be really disturbing though."
"How so?"
"Dead dog. But it is more implied than actually shown"
"Damn"
"And the chapter is gonna be abstract and creative in ways you wish the rest of the game was.
Except for one kind of annoying physics puzzle you'll waste too much time on"
"Why not ma.."
"Btw the we will call it Happy game. Get it?
Get it? Get it? Get it?"
Roll the credits.
"I mean, yea, they can be."
"How about we add some flashing red lights or just present it visually with a limited color palette of black, white and brownish reds, kinda like dried blood, aren't they even more scary now?"
"Well, a bit too.. stale, don't you think? But if the artstyle is intriguing enough it could be something.. at least."
"Isn't the nativity of a little kid not seeing how scary this is, EVEN MORE SCARY?"
"Eeehm, kind of, but isn't this in the same ball park of overplayed clichés as all the other idea's we had until now?"
"How about clicking on things? Isn't clicking on things and not knowing how to click or interact with them fucking terrifying?? Like a fear of the unknown!"
"No, not in the slightest. I don't think you even know what fear of the unknown means. That also seems like it would break the flow or immersion of whatever we are even trying to do."
"If we play a disturbing, scripted event after you click the intended and only possible way, I bet you will shit your pants though!!"
"Could we rethink thi.."
CHAPTER ONE DONE
"How about we make the second chapter a bit more interesting?"
"Okay, let's give it a kind of teletubies, happy tree friends vibe. I also think smiley balls are scary have I ever told you that?"
"Whatever"
"Also there will be a fail state"
CHAPTER TWO DONE
"The last chapter will be really disturbing though."
"How so?"
"Dead dog. But it is more implied than actually shown"
"Damn"
"And the chapter is gonna be abstract and creative in ways you wish the rest of the game was.
Except for one kind of annoying physics puzzle you'll waste too much time on"
"Why not ma.."
"Btw the we will call it Happy game. Get it?
Get it? Get it? Get it?"
Roll the credits.
2015
I had a best friend like Chloe growing up, a narcissistic rebel who's self-confidence and ability to truly not give a fuck I looked up to. But whenever i tried calling them out for their selfish asshole behaviour, they would gaslight me into thinking, me criticising them is actually worse and what they did is just what best friends do or not that big of a deal.
The game's casual normalisation of this kind of behaviour made me reflect on that constantly, but it never really questioned it. You can't not engage with chloe or really disagree with her actions if you want the story to progress. Trust me, I've tried getting caught, going back to max's room or what ever seemed like an alternative, but nothing is possible. If this inescapable dread of a guilt tripped toxic 'friendship' would be on purpose i think i could appreciate it, but it's not. The game views those scenes as Max having a fun night out with her besty.
I wanted to play this, because i was for a long time under the assumption that Life is strange is a pro LGBTQ+ game, but it utilises a mechanic known in the industry as 'gay button'. A bigoted homophone can play the entire game without ever being confronted with anything explicitly queer. It's all hidden behind optional button prompts and up to interpretation, like the boys or girls locker room decision or kissing chloe. The game just wears some of the aesthetics of being progressive nothing more.
It also kind of seemed from the very beginning to me like kate was a problem to solve for the player, before she was real character, which left a sour taste in my mouth up untill the point where i choose the wrong dialog a second time. I feel the game using her suicide as this shock factor knowlege-check climax to the episode, outways whatever they attempted to say about bullying or mental health and kind of game-ifys trauma.
When episode three strarted i had to think about the scene with kate, but before i could properly start reflecting max's voice actress said: "I really have to think about kate"
There is a constant discussion in film director circles about how much you should really think for the viewer. Beyond obvious stuff like 'show don't tell' there exists this inability in mainstream art to just let the receptor think and let them engage in their own thoughts about the art. I don't even mean having a different interpretation, i mean letting the receptor interpretate period.
Life is strange, constantly does this, it does the thinking for you. Max just tells you how or what to think. How to solve the puzzle. What to do. How to feel.
I really don't get why this is so normalized and even often appreciated in gaming.
For something more positive, i liked the artstyle and the general vibe of the town.
The game's casual normalisation of this kind of behaviour made me reflect on that constantly, but it never really questioned it. You can't not engage with chloe or really disagree with her actions if you want the story to progress. Trust me, I've tried getting caught, going back to max's room or what ever seemed like an alternative, but nothing is possible. If this inescapable dread of a guilt tripped toxic 'friendship' would be on purpose i think i could appreciate it, but it's not. The game views those scenes as Max having a fun night out with her besty.
I wanted to play this, because i was for a long time under the assumption that Life is strange is a pro LGBTQ+ game, but it utilises a mechanic known in the industry as 'gay button'. A bigoted homophone can play the entire game without ever being confronted with anything explicitly queer. It's all hidden behind optional button prompts and up to interpretation, like the boys or girls locker room decision or kissing chloe. The game just wears some of the aesthetics of being progressive nothing more.
It also kind of seemed from the very beginning to me like kate was a problem to solve for the player, before she was real character, which left a sour taste in my mouth up untill the point where i choose the wrong dialog a second time. I feel the game using her suicide as this shock factor knowlege-check climax to the episode, outways whatever they attempted to say about bullying or mental health and kind of game-ifys trauma.
When episode three strarted i had to think about the scene with kate, but before i could properly start reflecting max's voice actress said: "I really have to think about kate"
There is a constant discussion in film director circles about how much you should really think for the viewer. Beyond obvious stuff like 'show don't tell' there exists this inability in mainstream art to just let the receptor think and let them engage in their own thoughts about the art. I don't even mean having a different interpretation, i mean letting the receptor interpretate period.
Life is strange, constantly does this, it does the thinking for you. Max just tells you how or what to think. How to solve the puzzle. What to do. How to feel.
I really don't get why this is so normalized and even often appreciated in gaming.
For something more positive, i liked the artstyle and the general vibe of the town.
2020
Yes I know of a band named Fugazi. Thanks for asking strange, cute and scary game.
I am definitely gonna keep playing this series, especially because this was very short with no wet fat.
100% worth 15 minutes of your time just for the atmosphere. And it's way more than that one silly Pop-culture reference i kinda reduced it to.
I am definitely gonna keep playing this series, especially because this was very short with no wet fat.
100% worth 15 minutes of your time just for the atmosphere. And it's way more than that one silly Pop-culture reference i kinda reduced it to.
2022
Victim Doll made me feel so many different emotions during my ~1,5 hours with her, most of which I have rarely felt in Art, let alone Video Games. She left me speechless except the exclaimation "What the fuck" in all the ways I could exclaim it after the 'thanks for playing' text attempted to pluck me out again.
A violently horny intrusive thought with an appropriate smut of Marx. Conjured up by DOMINOCLUB & communistsister inside the skeletal Video Super Videotome engine, leaving the player only a hand full of choices they have real autonomy over, but its dithering Vicera are enough to punch through.
The atmospheric, crunched-out audio-visual synthesis imply a mood rather than a descriptive purpose and paired with the "it takes all place in the readers head" natural strength of literature leaves room for the recipients mind to interpretate and elevate it above just the sum of it's parts.
I thought the content and trigger warning was a trick to program fear inside the player's head before the game has even properly started, but no, it is sincere and fully appropriate.
I don't want to spoil more, just appetise the sick or give a healthy heads-up. Maybe also, because I can never hold back for long on hiding shitty referential double meaning in my prose and the game is free on itch anyway. Also any art that manages to make me pull the Dutch Google-translater up, to understand every single throw-away line, has to had fully gripped me.
Fuck Landlords.
A violently horny intrusive thought with an appropriate smut of Marx. Conjured up by DOMINOCLUB & communistsister inside the skeletal Video Super Videotome engine, leaving the player only a hand full of choices they have real autonomy over, but its dithering Vicera are enough to punch through.
The atmospheric, crunched-out audio-visual synthesis imply a mood rather than a descriptive purpose and paired with the "it takes all place in the readers head" natural strength of literature leaves room for the recipients mind to interpretate and elevate it above just the sum of it's parts.
I thought the content and trigger warning was a trick to program fear inside the player's head before the game has even properly started, but no, it is sincere and fully appropriate.
I don't want to spoil more, just appetise the sick or give a healthy heads-up. Maybe also, because I can never hold back for long on hiding shitty referential double meaning in my prose and the game is free on itch anyway. Also any art that manages to make me pull the Dutch Google-translater up, to understand every single throw-away line, has to had fully gripped me.
Fuck Landlords.
2021
The notion of Black and white photography communicates a way bigger interest in artsy shit than the game actually wants (you) to explore. Taking selfies gets the same priority as the zoom function out here. You get a tripod, not for any further calibrations like a hight adjustment or angling the camera a bit, but to insert the player character and by extension yourself into any scene (and for a puzzle solution that kept being reused). After getting the ability to use filters I took a really depressing photo of a crying kid and then showed it to the npc who gave me the filters, their reaction was: "hahaha ha filters make everything so funny".
Now don't misunderstand me, this isn't me criticising the npc reaction from the standpoint of "I showed him sad thing not funny thing, game wrong" and more like this is just how the game views photography.. as just funny toy to f around with (or as a checklist of challenges with the photo club npcs). If there was at least one npc with a more interesting perspective on photography in this game this wouldn't even be a problem to me, but there isn't. The dialog in this game is so 'going through the motions' filler, sometimes reduced to just the gesture towards a common trope, that they didn't even credit anyone for the writing.
The main reason I picked this up was because I thought it would give me the same comfiness and freedom of artistic expression, a wholesome little world like "Chicory" gave me, but it sadly didn't.
In Chicory nobody ever tells you how or what to draw. In Toem you almost exclusively have to take photos for checklists with descriptions that first seem like they are open for interpretation, but are actually just light puzzles with one specific solution. Photograph the tiniest army means photograph the ants, not a group of boy scouts in uniform, or the other 'can be mistaken as the tiniest army, thing they purposely put in the level which I forgot rn. Like, imagine if it wasn't: take a very specific photo for me with this loose description. And instead all of the purposely placed Red Herings are possible solutions, making it more about the relationship of interpretation and description than about a dumb fetch quest. But that would mean writing thoughtful dialog which..this game..doesn't
Chicory gets more colourful with each player input, a move that seems like a no-brainer in a black-and-white game about an entire artistic medium. Tbh, I believe they only left toem in b/w because color coding is really hard and It's easier to make a pictures look good that way.
The game is still a relaxing affair and losing yourself while taking photos works for me no matter how basic it and disappointing all of the rest is.
Now don't misunderstand me, this isn't me criticising the npc reaction from the standpoint of "I showed him sad thing not funny thing, game wrong" and more like this is just how the game views photography.. as just funny toy to f around with (or as a checklist of challenges with the photo club npcs). If there was at least one npc with a more interesting perspective on photography in this game this wouldn't even be a problem to me, but there isn't. The dialog in this game is so 'going through the motions' filler, sometimes reduced to just the gesture towards a common trope, that they didn't even credit anyone for the writing.
The main reason I picked this up was because I thought it would give me the same comfiness and freedom of artistic expression, a wholesome little world like "Chicory" gave me, but it sadly didn't.
In Chicory nobody ever tells you how or what to draw. In Toem you almost exclusively have to take photos for checklists with descriptions that first seem like they are open for interpretation, but are actually just light puzzles with one specific solution. Photograph the tiniest army means photograph the ants, not a group of boy scouts in uniform, or the other 'can be mistaken as the tiniest army, thing they purposely put in the level which I forgot rn. Like, imagine if it wasn't: take a very specific photo for me with this loose description. And instead all of the purposely placed Red Herings are possible solutions, making it more about the relationship of interpretation and description than about a dumb fetch quest. But that would mean writing thoughtful dialog which..this game..doesn't
Chicory gets more colourful with each player input, a move that seems like a no-brainer in a black-and-white game about an entire artistic medium. Tbh, I believe they only left toem in b/w because color coding is really hard and It's easier to make a pictures look good that way.
The game is still a relaxing affair and losing yourself while taking photos works for me no matter how basic it and disappointing all of the rest is.
2022
I played this with a friend who is usually very on edge during any kind of horror media. He fell asleep.
I could stop my review right here, on this tongue and cheek, but also completely sincere remark of my experience, because it hammers my main point of contempt home. That these games are utterly boring and uninteresting.
Even external things like a drinking game with the homie can't upgrade the experience. The game has a fucking catch phrase (used in the drinking game by us) it constantly spouts in desperation for relatability and as a lacklustre faux identity. The instagram motivational content classic you see at the bottom of your local gym bros workout pics "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger". The game tries to evoke Nietzsche, but can't even reach Kelly Clarkson.
I know there is a subset of narrow minded people in high up positions who actively want games to just be interactive films, but it seems to me like no matter how many A's these studios have their attempts fail even at B-Movie level. Made up of mostly cutscenens plagued by over done horror clichés and a term coined millenial writing. The second half consisting of tension robbing quick time events, fixed camera angles that learned nothing beyond superficiality from the original resident evils and choices the game just can't help but remind the player of, right after they were made.
That last one is something that I will never get. How unconfident in the player's ability to understand that they just made a choice is the game? Can they expect me to take it serious if it doesn't take me and the limited opinions of interactivity as such and therefore itself serious? Why try to immerse the player with 'agency' if you then immediately televise to them that this is just a game? Just put it in the logs without the pop up notification. At the same time revealing their cards like this let's the player notice whenever their choices actually meant nothing instead of leaving it out or god forbid up to interpretation. The path I choose was to shelve this game.
Before my friend fell asleep he said something that hit the nail on it's head "if this was a film I would have already closed it."
He is right. Games have this excuse. The novelty of interactivity alone carries way to often completely unoriginal and boring stories. How long till this novelty wears off?
To cleanse my soul and to keep my guilt conscious from feeling the need to review and find the right words for the games I actually love, for at least a little longer, I'll have to give credit where its due.
The scene with the narcissistic girl in which she walks the pier alone while talking to her phone. No other character would be able to have scene like this, but her behaviour up untill this point of the game makes it completely believable that she would just talk to her phone camera and half ironically pretend like she is talking to her followers. But i think the interesting part happens at the end of the scene. Idk if this is optional, but she does some verbal introspection about her actions towards the guy she likes and it humanises her. It was the first and only time i said "damn, this wasn't even bad writing" to my friend who was already asleep, but not yet snoring. Mere seconds later she enters a cabin at the end of her walk and gets killed by one of the things. The game humanised her right before killing her off. They robbed the viewer of the 'satisfaction' from seeing the unlikeable character killed and turned my indifference into sympathy and as result the moment almost into horror in the last second. I say almost, because the scene was still goofy af.
Also graphics so good they'll make you say "thats that dude from the netflix show they cancelled after one season." I don't know why netfilx is catching strays now, but i especially don't know how to end rev
I could stop my review right here, on this tongue and cheek, but also completely sincere remark of my experience, because it hammers my main point of contempt home. That these games are utterly boring and uninteresting.
Even external things like a drinking game with the homie can't upgrade the experience. The game has a fucking catch phrase (used in the drinking game by us) it constantly spouts in desperation for relatability and as a lacklustre faux identity. The instagram motivational content classic you see at the bottom of your local gym bros workout pics "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger". The game tries to evoke Nietzsche, but can't even reach Kelly Clarkson.
I know there is a subset of narrow minded people in high up positions who actively want games to just be interactive films, but it seems to me like no matter how many A's these studios have their attempts fail even at B-Movie level. Made up of mostly cutscenens plagued by over done horror clichés and a term coined millenial writing. The second half consisting of tension robbing quick time events, fixed camera angles that learned nothing beyond superficiality from the original resident evils and choices the game just can't help but remind the player of, right after they were made.
That last one is something that I will never get. How unconfident in the player's ability to understand that they just made a choice is the game? Can they expect me to take it serious if it doesn't take me and the limited opinions of interactivity as such and therefore itself serious? Why try to immerse the player with 'agency' if you then immediately televise to them that this is just a game? Just put it in the logs without the pop up notification. At the same time revealing their cards like this let's the player notice whenever their choices actually meant nothing instead of leaving it out or god forbid up to interpretation. The path I choose was to shelve this game.
Before my friend fell asleep he said something that hit the nail on it's head "if this was a film I would have already closed it."
He is right. Games have this excuse. The novelty of interactivity alone carries way to often completely unoriginal and boring stories. How long till this novelty wears off?
To cleanse my soul and to keep my guilt conscious from feeling the need to review and find the right words for the games I actually love, for at least a little longer, I'll have to give credit where its due.
The scene with the narcissistic girl in which she walks the pier alone while talking to her phone. No other character would be able to have scene like this, but her behaviour up untill this point of the game makes it completely believable that she would just talk to her phone camera and half ironically pretend like she is talking to her followers. But i think the interesting part happens at the end of the scene. Idk if this is optional, but she does some verbal introspection about her actions towards the guy she likes and it humanises her. It was the first and only time i said "damn, this wasn't even bad writing" to my friend who was already asleep, but not yet snoring. Mere seconds later she enters a cabin at the end of her walk and gets killed by one of the things. The game humanised her right before killing her off. They robbed the viewer of the 'satisfaction' from seeing the unlikeable character killed and turned my indifference into sympathy and as result the moment almost into horror in the last second. I say almost, because the scene was still goofy af.
Also graphics so good they'll make you say "thats that dude from the netflix show they cancelled after one season." I don't know why netfilx is catching strays now, but i especially don't know how to end rev
2017
Just a bunch of shapes.