AFAR: An Interactive Horror Film

I'm a big fan of Jason Trost's work so this was cool as hell to see (If you haven't seen the FP movies, you need to ASAP). I really dig everything about it. I really dig this kind of art and I wish more people would take a chance and make something original like AFAR. I know these projects probably don't make tons of money, but I sure do appreciate the experience. If you're into indie films, horror, and choose your own adventure style storytelling you'll probably dig this. It's not a traditional video game so know what you're getting into. I know it's unlikely, but I really want to see more stuff like this (especially from JTRO!)

[h1]Afar[/h1] Afar is difficult to review without spoiling anything. I will say that I experienced it for free via family sharing but liked it enough that I purchased it to support it. Keep a pencil and paper handy to keep a map of the choices you can make. It is imperative that you go through all routes to get a look at the big picture. [h2]The Good[/h2] Afar is shot with a mix of green-screen stills in studio, and stationary camera on-location footage, evoking a perspective similar to PS1 Resident Evil: a camera is set up, a character moves form one place to another, then the camera moves to a new scene and angle, not necessarily where a person's sight line may be, making the audience feel like a creature watching Brian themselves or am omniscient being. For being a (close to) one-man production, this is above my expectations. [h2]The Bad[/h2] My chief complaint is accessibility. With no closed captions, I had to reiterate multiple things to my hard-of-hearing partner. I do appreciate the realism of the tone the characters spoke in (unlike some AAA films where actors over-enunciate their lines in a way that nobody would actually speak), but not including accessibility options reduces your audience size. Two small but very minor complaints: the long walking scenes in the beginning would would have been better paired with the exposition dumps from the train. Have Brian listen to the message during his walk, then lead into reading the paper on the train, then read the journal at camp. As an investigator, it would make sense that he would go through all three and I wouldn't need to go through multiple times to get the whole backstory.Finally, [spoiler]the guns felt a little weightless. When the soldier is being attacked and holds it straight up with one hand, you can easily tell it's not a real loaded rifle. Just dropping it would have been an easy fix to this. It also felt like the rifle cocking sound effect was over used in these scenes. When Brian's inspecting the pistol, he waves it back and forth which was a little distracting. It makes sense that he'd inspect one side for a bit, then the other, maybe get a few different camera angles on it so the audience can see it over, but there's a lot of motion on it.[/spoiler] [h2]Final Thoughts[/h2] Buy it, have some friends over for an afternoon, have them bring snacks, go through it in the dark, make sure you map out the options so that you see everything to get the whole story, it's a decent enough time. Don't take it so seriously, but don't write it off either.

If you're already into Jason Trost's style of cinematography, writing, and storytelling then you'll enjoy this. If you're not then I wouldn't recommend this being your first experience with it. Go watch FP 1, 2, or 3, Waves of Madeness, or All Superheroes Must Die. Wet and Reckless is also a solid choice. Then after that come back to this. Overall I recommend this. Its unique. Not quite a FMV, Not quite a regular movie. There is alot of flashing lights. Like, an excessive amount. So FYI if you're sensitive to that. A key to getting the most out of this is in the replays. You're limited on choices and which pieces of backstory info/exposition you unlock on each playthrough. So it is more rewarding to go through multiple times. You can skip through cutscenes to make this faster each time so you can get past things you've already seen before and get to new stuff. Its not perfect but it is consistent with what I expected.

I have not played many FMV interactive games, so this was a new experience for me and it was a ton of fun. It's beautiful and aesthetic, really paints a mood and gets you into it, both visually and musically. An early death let me retry the same choice again, so that was nice. And once I reached a final ending, I was able to briskly get to exactly where I was and see what the other choice would have led me to by pressing space to skip the FMV sequences, so it'll never be a slog to see every path that this adventure has to offer. Looking forward to my next few runs and enjoying more of the story.

说起影游，从《完蛋！我被美女包围了》破圈开始，慢慢地一大批国产影游就如雨后春笋一样登陆了steam，也走进了大众视野，如今国产影游在市场上也可说是屡见不鲜了。但是，外国影游，除了wales interactive的《夜书》《晚班》《复体》等等，我并没有其他了解的作品。这款《AFAR》就是一部今年新推出的外国影游。可惜，无中文，甚至没有英文字幕。 游戏一上来给我的是一种疯狂感。游戏的滤镜就像我之前看的一些外网的伪人小视频一样，整个画面布满了噪点、雪花和摩尔纹，时不时地突然变成令人感到恶心的橙色和红色。再加上诡异的音效以及被电子喇叭扭曲过的旁白，我想非这类艺术爱好者的玩家接触到这款游戏的第一反应是抗拒。 故事的开头是一个五官很立体的老哥独自闯进了一个像是在戈壁中的无人区。但是无人区真的无人吗？也并不是。不知何处的喇叭在高声警告着他让他出去。但这种地方也不是一般人会轻易来的，能下决心到这里来的老哥也不会被一两句话吓退。从他摊开的地图上，我们可以看到通往深处的三条路线，这也就是我们决定结局的分支了。游戏总共剧情分为三天，有五个结局，是平安归还，还是继续前行，甚至不幸殉难，全凭玩家的选择。 总而言之，本游戏剧情理解起来相对困难，同时英语听力一般或者对西式惊悚题材不感冒的玩家也请谨慎入手。 [quote]关注鉴赏组：[url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45134494]浮生评测[/url] ←"浮生若梦，一鉴倾心，邀您共赏人间烟火" 加入Steam组：[url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/LLFLLFF]浮生评测[/url]←“一起追寻'浮生若梦'般的游戏体验” 开始“浮生若梦”鉴赏组的奇幻之旅！[/quote]

My husband & I own the film & book versions of "AFAR," and we're huge fans of Jason Trost (aka JTRO)'s other films and books, so trying out the game was a no-brainer. If you are a fan of JTRO's work, this game should be in your library! This indie, choose-your-own-adventure horror game can be done in approximately 30-minute playthroughs, and no matter what choices you make, the story stays suspenseful and engaging. We played it for a few hours and had a lot of fun debating which areas to explore or paths to take. As long as you keep the style of the game in mind, you won't be disappointed. If you're going into this expecting a traditional game, you will likely be confused or maybe even bored since it really does play like a movie. Pros: - the game perfectly embodies the 90s VHS, gritty, "Blair Witch"-esque style films - the story is super unique while still being easy to follow - the gameplay is intuitive and can be enjoyed solo or as a group making the decisions together - very replayable - since there are different endings and choices to make, you'll want to play again and again until you experience all the options Cons: - I tried to play it on my Steam Deck initially but couldn't get it to work properly, even after a lot of troubleshooting (though others have reported a smooth experience on the Steam Deck so it could be a me problem) - JTRO's work is definitely unique, so people who aren't fans of indie films/games or outside-of-the-box production may not fully appreciate or enjoy the game - people with light sensitivity should be cautious; there are a lot of flashing and bright scenes Overall, we really enjoyed the game and plan on playing it again. Perfect for a rainy night when you don't want to just watch TV but also don't want to play an intensive game.

The story concept of this game was really cool and I also really liked the music and the visuals of this game. BUT in my opinion the game would have been much better, if it focused more on the atmospheric horror and showing us what happened to the contestants. Instead we get multiple scenes with the monsters that [b] lack suspense [/b] and have [b] too many flashing lights. [/b] Storywise, I wish we got more backstory of the contestants (and that one contestant's wife we keep talking too) and in general [b] more story detail, [/b] because the game is trying to be "mysterious" but instead it just lacks depth and feels hard to understand. The choices we can make also don't really seem to affect the story in any way. And I understand that this would be hard to execute in a game where a playthrough lasts around 30min, but I still believe that some improvements can be made AND that the game would benefit from being longer, so the story could be explained better.

If I had epilepsi I would probably end up in seizure and vibrating more the my wifes toys. So I would probably not get medical aid before she was done. The story line was confusing at best. so nahh I wont reccomend this to anyone.

Enjoyable, though I died 14 minutes in on my first go while trying to be heroic. Without giving any spoilers, , I had flashbacks to waching the Twilight Zone and Outer Limits reruns when I was a kid in the early 80s, further flashbacks to the screwy camera persepctives following the protagonist from the original Resident Evil and Heavy Rain games, and enjoyed the concept of the "found footage" to unveil more story. Looking forward to giving another go. Thanks JTRO - after I got hooked on Waves of Madness via a post you'd made on the Cult of Cthulhu FB group promoting it, I was compelled to try, and gettign for under $4CDN on a steam sale recently was even better! "Over and Goodnight!"

Meet Brian - an mullet wearing Australian Dean Winchester-wanna be, who is trying to solve the mystery of Barlang Valley. Investigate. Fire an odd looking EMP gun. Survive. The title says it all - this is an interactive FMV experience and not a game in the classical sense of it. You have to watch couple of short movies and take decisions between them. And ill be honest - the acting (and voice acting) is horrible. The camera effects are headache summoning (and not fun since the second Blair Witch movie 20 years ago). The special effects are...well, you better see for yourself. But the story seems to be good, and the attempt is brave, so yeah, you can give it a try (with discount. Only with discount!) Video: https://youtu.be/LvsFh2oa-2A