A Hand With Many Fingers

I went into the game expecting it to be a little short, but I was honestly hit in the face when the ending decided to come. Only when things were really starting to get interesting, and the board had only just started getting messy. I'd love for this to be a game I reccomend, there's genuinely so much potential, it just doesn't have anywhere it's going with it. I'd say it's fairly similar to if I had played a game demo.

I'm sorry, but I cannot recommend this game. Yes it is short, but I'd known that before buying it, but that's not the reason why I'm saying this. The mystery behind the story is not that thrilling and the process of unravelling it is also not interesting. There is jut too little substance. Play "The Roottrees are Dead" instead. More or less the same idea - far better execution.

I should preface by saying I had no idea how long/short I should expect the game to be. That being said, a brief synopsis of my experience with the game: I start the game, find some documents and start putting some pieces together, so far exactly what I had expected. Quickly I start noticing the corkboard is a bit small, given the size of the documents. I push on, trying to keep things somewhat organized. Not long after, I end up finding some documents that really seem to widen the picture: I have many new questions and questions I already had are now reframed. Suddenly, credits roll. I start getting a bit excited and think "oh, so this was a prologue and the real game is going to start now". And then the game ends. I then tried to search and figure out if I had missed something, maybe I triggered some flag that ended the game too early, or didn't realize some clue and missed a whole other side of the narrative or something. Alas no: I had, in fact, experienced the entirety of the content. What annoyed me was not how short the game was [i]per se[/i], but the lack of a conclusion. It feels very much like a prologue or a teaser, for some other game that sadly does not exist. Many threads are left hanging (pun intended) and the "big reveal" that prompted the end of the game just felt like the bearest tip of the iceberg. As a demo for a possible style of gameplay, I think it works. This could be expanded into a bigger game, or even used as a prototype for a whole series of games, each exploring a different event, and I bet a lot of people would enjoy those, myself included. However, as a finished game it felt narratively unsatisfying. Another thing, and this is a bit of a nitpick: the game is marketed as "non-linear" but, given the way the discovery process works and the way the documents are structured, there clearly is a single thread (this pun was accidental) to be followed. It is a non-linear narrative (i.e. non-chronological) but, the way I see it, it's not a non-linear game. Yes, you might see document A before document B and someone else see B before A, but the change in the overall sequence, and especially in the feeling of how the narrative is progressing, will be minor. I think this too is mostly a symptom of the small scope of the game: if there are only a couple of plotlines, there are not that many possible permutations, and if each plotline is short, they will end up all blending together to your audience. Other similar games achieve non-linearity through sheer number of available paths, each one crafted in a somewhat linear way in order to avoid confusion and to allow the designer to craft a compelling narrative with set-ups and pay-offs. Given the limited the limited scope of this game, I imagine it would have been basically impossible to achieve a feeling of non-linearity without deeply compromising the narrative structure. In any case, I do think it's fine that it was structured the way it was; even if scope wasn't an issue I don't think it being mostly linear is a problem. I just think that declaring it a "non-linear investigative thriller" is misleading and set up some expectations it didn't (and couldn't) fulfill.

1,5 hours of boring archive diving to uncover an usurprising murder mystery. The authors clearly wanted to show how evil CIA is, but they were so incompetent that a Wikipedia article has more intriguing and dark plot.

Great concept and could have been very cool, but was left wanting more. I know it's a small indie game, but the ending was very unsatisfying and sudden and felt that it could be encountered accidentally. There are lots of locked locations which gave the promise of a longer game with more material. Overall, good concept, poor execution. Would play a more fleshed out release from this dev, but would need more material.

The game ended and congratulated me for winning before I had any idea what I was doing. I don't know whether that means I did it right or wrong, but it was a lousy experience regardless.

Good mechanics with a few glitches but there is no time line unless you make it, I mean write it but it is only for your own satisfaction and it does not effect the outcome of the game. It ends when you have all of the relevant documents and it doesn't matter how you link them it just ends.

This game feels unfinished. Maybe I'm poisoned by the likes of Golden Idol, which gives regular checks that you really understand what's going on in a complex, multi-layered story... But this felt like you followed a few threads, dug down one rabbit-hole... and then the game ended. Once the game figured that you'd discovered the pertinent parts, it declared you successful. That's it, the end. I was ultimately unsatisfied with the conclusion. The conspiracy was exactly what it seemed on the surface... if you were diligent with names and tracked the themes, there were no curveballs or twists. Even if this is a true story? There are ways to deliver it in more interesting ways, or with more challenge. This was too straightforward, too easy. Honestly, the mystery was kind of boring, and that is perhaps the worst thing that a game like this can be.

If you get motion sickness from games this is not for you. I had to sit at the menu for a few minutes to have enough time in game to write a review because this game makes me sick in seconds. The only other game to hit me so hard so fast was Superliminal. Everything about this game seems like it would be right up my alley, but I can't play it. An FOV slider would go a long way towards fixing it, but I doubt I'll see a patch on a 5 year old $5 game.

I stumbled through the game, not really understanding what was happening but understanding how to find boxes. Then I got a key, and then i opened a box, and there was a car crashed into my office, and then the game ended. I then had to look at the discussions to see an actual explanation of what I did and what it meant. I never really engaged with the corkboard mechanic, as you never have to. All you have to do is empty the box so you're allowed to free up the desk and place another box on top. I really don't like discussions on what is or isn't a game, as many things people think games are or aren't are subjective. However, personally, I don't feel as if this was a game. It didn't feel like the things I was doing mattered in any meaningful way, or that I was capable of really absorbing or appreciating the story.