AFAR: An Interactive Horror Film

First off, plus points for working on the Steam Deck. Played it on mine and it worked perfectly, no lag, no random closing, it worked. This is a really sharp looking interactive film. If you’ve ever digested the work of Jason Trost, he gives his films a one of a kind look and feel. This is no different. Visuals are by far the best part of the game, but the other areas aren’t lacking. To be clear, this isn’t a “game” per se, where you collect items, fight bosses, try to get women to fall in love with you, it is as described, an interactive film. Think Choose Your Own Adventure for adults. There are “good” and “bad” endings, and I think they all worked. Preferred the “good” ending the most myself. Even if interactive films really aren’t your thing, give it a shot. If you want unique experiences in games and not the same old stuff, you need to support the indie developers taking a chance with fresh takes on the genre. Lots of fun, and worth multiple playthroughs. Plus points for being able to skip the scenes as well, not sure if that happens after the first playthrough (I didn’t try, was too interested in the visuals), but you could skip them with ease.

A short film which, while competently shot and edited, does little to introduce its world and characters, while also burying the real interesting worldbuilding in seemingly throwaway one-liners. It doesn't seem interested in whether the audience is invested in the characters, and yet still trots out bafflingly odd side information about them as though it were hot gossip. The action sequences are marred by extended and constant red to white flashing, of which there is no warning, and though it is mercifully skippable, it also comprises a lot of the gameplay, so you'll be enduring them if your intent was to enjoy the result of choices you make and see how the scenes play out differently. Personally, it gave me a headache. Ultimately, there are rare few choices that result in not making it to the final act of the game, wherein your choices begin to carry actual weight and determine in any way your ending. Only one ending was narratively satisfying in my opinion, perhaps by design, but it left the others feeling more like afterthoughts resulting from the need for consequences for not finding the path. The 'good' ending felt as though it was setting up a sequel, but the whole game itself feels like it wants so desperately to exist in a larger narrative which it winks and nods at, but never really lets us in on. It felt like it was demanding reverence for a world it hadn't yet built. Visually, It's very distinct, but it didn't do itself any favours for readability. It seems like the director and star has some fans who know his work and who are probably familiar with his style, so if that's you, it sounds like you'll like it. If not, it's a lot of high saturation and contrast with colour filters. The writing is trying to stand on ground it just didn't seem to have in the first place, and constantly teetering on the edge of saying something interesting before backing away to brood mysteriously. I love FMV and horror, and both combined is usually a winning combo for me, but this one feels like it was pulling its punches a little bit to try to be mysterious, when it should have stood in its truth and told a longer and more in depth story about the disappearances from more perspectives. It really feels like a demo in both length and narrative arc, and though I would personally love to see more of where this story goes, I don't think I'd recommend it to friends. It also has no in-game menu from what I had seen, no volume adjustment or pause, and widescreen support is limited to alt-enter and running windowed if your display isn't the right aspect ratio.

The flashing in this game is enough to put a normal person through a seizure.

A fun survival horror Experience build for short multiple play throughs with endings that are actually wildly different. I was pleasantly surprised by each of the 3 endings I got across my play through. worked great on my steam deck.

I knew JTRO wouldn't let us down, fun short fmv.

AFAR is a solid entry into the FMV interactive movie/game Genre. It requires about 30 minutes for a playthrough ( as stated on the menu when you start the game). $10 is a steal for this game. Would have paid $15 without question after playing this. If you like any of the FMV classics I would recommend picking this up. Right now I think its #2 overall but I've only done one playthrough so I will update my rankings if it surpasses Night Trap. If you are a fan of the genre pick it up FMV GOATS 1.Night Trap 2.AFAR 3.Sewer Shark 4.Dragons Lair 5.Dragons Lair II

AFAR is a short-film split into segments very similar to a choose-your-own-adventure novel. The writing and cinematography pretty much falls right in line with similar works from Jason Trost, most notably the recent film Waves of Madness, and is excellently done. Honestly, I'd like to see more short films from Trost done in this style - if you're going in blind, expect less a game and more of an indie movie experience with some minor participation, this is definitely a callback to FMV style games. We played through the game in one sitting of about 80 minutes and got all of the endings, with the good ending giving the most closure to the story, although there was an alternate ending that was rather interesting. The music was probably my favorite part, I hope to see the soundtrack available at some point to download. I did experience one glitch at the end of the Aurora route where I think I got a game over and was offered to restart, but no video or text appeared on the screen other than "Yes" and "No," which restarted the scene or went back to the main menu (respectively). I also saw a visual error in one of the camp sequences, where a video camera is grabbed and turned on in the forest - during the short start-up of the hand camera, part of the camera's body disappears due to green screen and shows the pile of leaves on the ground behind it. I would have also appreciated the option of subtitles. The story was captivating enough to make me go through each of the choices and connect all the pieces together, and if there were to be more like this in the future, I'd appreciate the story being a little longer and perhaps having more "majorly influential" decisions that could impact the ending you can achieve, or even adding a small bit of tension with quick-time decisions. All in all a good time, and one I may play in the future again with a friend who hasn't seen it.

From the maker of The FP film series, and The Waves of Madness comes an adventure of a lifetime!!! Join Jason Trost as Detective Brian Everett on this interactive adventure filled with suspense, action and more!!! Afar is an experience you will want to live over and over again! 10 out of 10 Stars!

This isn't traditional FMV game. There are no QTEs or Dragons Lair style timed escapes. This is a choose your own adventure movie. This would be perfectly playable on a DVD (and it is!) so if you're in for a cool supernatural adventure film that you can change the plot to, this is your product!

A fantastic VHS-style FMV inspired story where choices matter. Great atmospheric tension, and the story unfolds in a satisfying way - whether you survive or not. With a relatively short play time, it's easy to take several passes and spend time exploring all the corners of Barlang Valley. Great for lovers of story rich games with horror overtones, but without the in-game tension of a survival game, but make no mistake there' s plenty of on-screen tension. An amazing fore into directing a game, can't wait to see what comes next!