I wanna give this one an A for Effort. I love the premise, I love the structure, and I really love playing it. The process of navigating documents and file cabinets is so engrossing, I would gladly play more games in this style. And I'm happy to see more games expose the truly monstrous history of the CIA. The game also does a lot of interesting little things, even having a few genuinely delightful surprises along the way. I really want to front load this with compliments, because it really does some of this stuff incredibly.
But, unfortunately, I think this game does a bad job of actually delivering the information it wants you to uncover. I honestly don't feel like I know much more about the actual conspiracy this game was about. I know the names of the major players, but I only have a vague understanding of their actions. The game sets you up with a very specific question to guide you. And I'm not even sure I get the answer to that, frankly.
I reopened the game before I posted this review to pore over the documents once again to see if I was just missing something. And I can't say I have that much better an understanding of what was going on. I do not consider myself a particularly easy to confuse reader or player. Maybe I was just too sleepy for it to all come together in the way it was supposed to, and maybe that's my fault. Maybe it's because the highlighting system causes you to fixate on names, times, and places, rather than to focus on the actual content of the documents you are going through. (My notes, originally detailed, devolved into a list of reference numbers). Maybe it's because the documents are too sparse and too vague to give me a good understanding of the details. Maybe I'm just stupid. But I needed much more concrete and explicit explanations of the geopolitical situation, or just the basic situation, for that matter. Maybe that makes me stupid.
When the game cuts to credits, I only just started to feel like I was understanding what was going on. I see the silhouette of the conspiracy but nothing more. I understand its shape, but not its nuances and structure. The game spread out its arms and said "Tada!", but I was still waiting for the rabbit to come out of the hat.
I typically hate the criticism of "I Don't Get It!". But in this case, the goal of this game (ostensibly) is to inform me about a real life series of events in a way that is engaging. Was I engaged? Absolutely! Did I feel like I learned something? Not really!
But, unfortunately, I think this game does a bad job of actually delivering the information it wants you to uncover. I honestly don't feel like I know much more about the actual conspiracy this game was about. I know the names of the major players, but I only have a vague understanding of their actions. The game sets you up with a very specific question to guide you. And I'm not even sure I get the answer to that, frankly.
I reopened the game before I posted this review to pore over the documents once again to see if I was just missing something. And I can't say I have that much better an understanding of what was going on. I do not consider myself a particularly easy to confuse reader or player. Maybe I was just too sleepy for it to all come together in the way it was supposed to, and maybe that's my fault. Maybe it's because the highlighting system causes you to fixate on names, times, and places, rather than to focus on the actual content of the documents you are going through. (My notes, originally detailed, devolved into a list of reference numbers). Maybe it's because the documents are too sparse and too vague to give me a good understanding of the details. Maybe I'm just stupid. But I needed much more concrete and explicit explanations of the geopolitical situation, or just the basic situation, for that matter. Maybe that makes me stupid.
When the game cuts to credits, I only just started to feel like I was understanding what was going on. I see the silhouette of the conspiracy but nothing more. I understand its shape, but not its nuances and structure. The game spread out its arms and said "Tada!", but I was still waiting for the rabbit to come out of the hat.
I typically hate the criticism of "I Don't Get It!". But in this case, the goal of this game (ostensibly) is to inform me about a real life series of events in a way that is engaging. Was I engaged? Absolutely! Did I feel like I learned something? Not really!