Bought this for its recent Switch release and I think it's a really special game.
At its heart it's an old-fashioned point-and-click adventure, but it has a very distinctive narrative set-up. Basically you are trying to get into and play a game, but the operating system - a sentient AI - is for some reason trying to distract and stop you from doing this. So the game is all about trying to find and get into the game.
Of course you do manage to force and puzzle your way in through the desktop interface and then you and the AI are whisked into a 'Wrong Dimension' consisting of discrete puzzle scenarios based on classic game franchises and genres (e.g. Maniac Mansion, Zelda). And there you start to learn more about the AI, why he tried to keep you out, and it gets progressively more intriguing as you go on.
I was a bit concerned that this highly self-conscious narrative conceit - which is 'meta' to the nth degree with references to past games that come thick and fast - would very quickly become grating in its cleverness. I'm quite amazed that it has not, at least not so far. I guess this is down in large part to the excellent art and writing and voice acting (there are plenty of genuine laughs here), but more importantly to the quality of the puzzles. They're just ingenious, frequently riffing on the silliness of the point-and-click genre, and quite challenging, but not to the degree that I've had to use the hint system (yet). The overall theme of the puzzles seems to be to try to break the game in front of you, to gimp and screw with its systems and mechanics, and it's a delight to work out.
This feels somewhat parallel to the way you had to 're-program' the rules of interaction in Baba Is You, but it is nowhere near as brain-busting as that game (which defeated me). Another game it reminds me of is Hypnospace Outlaw, at least in the aesthetics and the nostalgia pay-out for gamers of 'a certain age' (i.e. the old lags of NTSC-UK).
Anyway, I think it's great so far. A rock solid point-and-click packed with lots of gamey references and humour. Will update as I get further in.
At its heart it's an old-fashioned point-and-click adventure, but it has a very distinctive narrative set-up. Basically you are trying to get into and play a game, but the operating system - a sentient AI - is for some reason trying to distract and stop you from doing this. So the game is all about trying to find and get into the game.
Of course you do manage to force and puzzle your way in through the desktop interface and then you and the AI are whisked into a 'Wrong Dimension' consisting of discrete puzzle scenarios based on classic game franchises and genres (e.g. Maniac Mansion, Zelda). And there you start to learn more about the AI, why he tried to keep you out, and it gets progressively more intriguing as you go on.
I was a bit concerned that this highly self-conscious narrative conceit - which is 'meta' to the nth degree with references to past games that come thick and fast - would very quickly become grating in its cleverness. I'm quite amazed that it has not, at least not so far. I guess this is down in large part to the excellent art and writing and voice acting (there are plenty of genuine laughs here), but more importantly to the quality of the puzzles. They're just ingenious, frequently riffing on the silliness of the point-and-click genre, and quite challenging, but not to the degree that I've had to use the hint system (yet). The overall theme of the puzzles seems to be to try to break the game in front of you, to gimp and screw with its systems and mechanics, and it's a delight to work out.
This feels somewhat parallel to the way you had to 're-program' the rules of interaction in Baba Is You, but it is nowhere near as brain-busting as that game (which defeated me). Another game it reminds me of is Hypnospace Outlaw, at least in the aesthetics and the nostalgia pay-out for gamers of 'a certain age' (i.e. the old lags of NTSC-UK).
Anyway, I think it's great so far. A rock solid point-and-click packed with lots of gamey references and humour. Will update as I get further in.
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