Apartment Story

An insanely stylish sims-like that cleverly leverages the genre not only to tell a story, but to explore the negative space around it, the mundane parts that are often skipped.

I really wanted to like this game, but I encountered bugs within the first few minutes. The very basics of picking things up and combining items to eat (which you need to do) are needlessly janky--the very first meal I made got bugged and stuck to the dinner table, I couldn't eat it. Oh well, I moved on but eventually got to a moment in the game where something was obviously supposed to occur...but it didn't. The game was running and I could move around, but time was no longer passing and my meters weren't going down. Basically I was two hours in and realized I wouldn't be able to progress and there's no way to back up or reset the moment or whatever. Not about to wade through the first two hours again. There's charm to this game for sure, but it's just too clunky and janky to recommend in it's state. It was cool that my avatar was able to watch porn and blast it while my friend waited right by my side. A true NPC buddy indeed.

一見、舞台はアパートの一室だけの生活シムというミニマルなゲーム。 しかし、驚異的な体験がある。 主人公は食い詰めているジャーナリスト。過去のルームメイトの女が訪れる。 しかし、女はある男に追い詰められており、主人公はその相談に乗る中で 凄惨な事態に発展してゆく。 映画で誰が言ったか「男と女と車か銃があれば映画はできる」みたいな 作品が成立する最低ラインを語っていたが、おそらくその格言に自覚的な設定だ。 プレイヤーはジャーナリストとして、 ほぼ1日アパートのなかで過ごすなかで、そうした出来事に出くわす。 主するゲームプレイする日常は何のドラマもないかのようだ。 ラップトップで書き物の仕事をしたり、妙に丹念な自炊で食事をしたりする。 時には「精神の安定」のためにアダルトサイトでオナニーしたり、 マリファナを吸ったりすることができる。 クローズドな空間で睡眠や精神といったパラメータを調整するプレイからは、 主人公の孤独を体感させられる。 外で振り続ける雨は孤立を際立たせる。 メインストーリーとは、そんな孤立の日々を終わらせるかのように訪れる。 やがて3人の登場人物を巡り、一丁の銃が登場することで 加速するように破綻に向かう。 なにより、2000年代＋90年代PSX的なローポリゴン風ビジュアルが、 ざらついたリアリティをもって迫って来る。 シェンムーやGTA、そして本作のモデルのひとつであるThe Simsを想起するが、 どれにも似ているようで、似ていない。 ゲームプレイ・ストーリー・グラフィックが揃って、 フォトリアルで回収できない、生々しい現実を表現しようとする意味で このゲームは新しいなにかがある。

Short, gorgeous and moody, this game hits some extremely good notes. This game deserves better control, a slightly more polished gameplay and some voice acting. As it stands, it is an incredibly cool but clunky experience.

This game is not for everyone but I think some will REALLY vibe with it. This game deserves way more attention. There's a lot of jank here. The characters don't have a ton of depth. But this game made me feel anxious and powerless in a way that was pretty unique. And then a little frustrated by the end as my save file glitched and I wasn't able to finish the game. I ended up watching the final minutes on YouTube. As the story builds, I found the sims like, stat management elements helped build tension. Washing the dishes while you wait in paranoia for the consequences of what took place the previous day was quite interesting and made me feel surprisingly anxious. The characters weren't particularly intriguing and their conversations felt pretty short. There seemed to be so little connection between them that the ending conversation felt pretty botched, as did the drop of the ending screen considering how much style the game has overall. The game looks INCREDIBLE and definitely has the sauce. I would've loved to spend more time just hanging out in the apartment. It definitely passes the weird/chill/dreary atmosphere vibe check and for $7 and two hours of my life I found it to be a pretty interesting game and great way to spend my weekend.

extremely well done, Sims except you're afraid of getting murdered if you don't keep your stats up

It's three in the afternoon, I'm stoned, I'm hungry but I don't feel like cooking or cleaning. I pick up a slice of pizza off the floor and eat it. But enough about my life, I have some thoughts on this game to share. Short experimental game that is surprisingly affecting for how short and simple it is. A relatively mundane setting and set of verbs makes the moments of tension and violence feel that much more shocking. The visuals really bring it to life, every detail of the apartment exudes personality and the lighting is gorgeous. The devs have said they plan on releasing more shortform games like this and I'm excited to see what else they come up with.

really well crafted experience. it's basically a narrative life sim with a great presentation. highly recommended!

Sitting in a corner, eating pasta while looking at my apartment door, keeping a gun close to me... has been one of the most intense experiences I've ever had in a videogame.