TSC is a game about the deprivation of choice. The protagonist is a faceless mute, dragged around by the whims of fate and all but shown how powerless he is. The characters you meet are burnouts, miserable, traumatized killers, stubborn old men without futures.
I'm iffy on the ADV/VN genre space. Just how I am. I can read a book no problem, but the thought of sitting down in front of a strict text crawl makes me want to jump out of my skin a little bit. TSC uses the gameplay framework of ADV/VNs to direct the feeling of powerlessness. There are no flowcharts, no failstates, hardly any objectives worth completing in a meaningful way. It's hard not to compare this use of the gameplay framework to Suda51's excellent Killer7, which uses the power-fantasy aspect of first-person shooters as a form of terror.
It's hard to really say anything about TSC that hasnt already been stated by both my friends and critics far smarter than I. It's a wholly singular piece of media that uses its genre trappings with lethal efficiency. Kill the past.
I'm iffy on the ADV/VN genre space. Just how I am. I can read a book no problem, but the thought of sitting down in front of a strict text crawl makes me want to jump out of my skin a little bit. TSC uses the gameplay framework of ADV/VNs to direct the feeling of powerlessness. There are no flowcharts, no failstates, hardly any objectives worth completing in a meaningful way. It's hard not to compare this use of the gameplay framework to Suda51's excellent Killer7, which uses the power-fantasy aspect of first-person shooters as a form of terror.
It's hard to really say anything about TSC that hasnt already been stated by both my friends and critics far smarter than I. It's a wholly singular piece of media that uses its genre trappings with lethal efficiency. Kill the past.