Apartment Story

There are aspects of this game that I really liked - the attention to detail in the apartment furnishing, the lighting, and the music were all great. Other than those things, this game really didn't hang together for me unfortunately. I like the idea of having Sims-style bars that you have to manage, but was disappointed with how little effect they had on the game. There are a couple of nice moments when narrative events impacted them but I found they didn't add much to the overall experience. In general the lack of reactivity present in the game makes me feel like there is a lot of wasted potential here. I appreciate that adding bespoke reactions based on the current game state is costly, but I think Apartment Story just serves as good example that games are not suited to the type of storytelling seen in linear media. There were multiple occasions where the seams of the narrative scripting were visible, with the game waiting for me to do the exact interactions it wanted in order to progress, and I don't think it dealt with any deviation from that well. It feels like this would have worked much better as a short film or written story. I'm quite tolerant of bugs and jank, especially in small indie titles, but I found there were enough of them to get in the way of my enjoyment. The lo-fi animations, while charming, did undermine the tone I feel the game was going for. Pacing wasn't great and there were long stretches of time where I felt like I was just waiting around for stuff to happen. If the waiting was intentional, it didn't work for me. The level design in the final scene was also confusing and kind of killed any impact the narrative may have had at that moment. Despite writing about the things I didn't like at length, I'm going to give a thumbs-up. I think it is really important that games keep trying to push the boundaries of what types of experiences they can give players and I think Apartment Story is an ambitious attempt at doing so. I'm looking forward to seeing more from the developers with the suggestion that the next thing they make is scoped a little bit more appropriately for their budget.

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.

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。

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.

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.

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.

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

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

De tant en tant ens trobem amb petits videojocs que, tot i no estar destinats al públic més mainstream, ve de gust parlar d’ells i recomanar-los, si més no, de boca en boca. Si hi sumem que soc un gran fan d’aquests jocs diferents que barregen l’experiència cinematogràfica amb els videojocs, com és el cas de les meravelles que fa en Sam Barlow (Immortality), podeu entendre que m’hi tirés de cap a aquest joc quan el vaig veure per primer cop. He de dir que si amb aquesta ressenya aconsegueixo que algú es compri el joc quedaré ben orgullós. Avui us parlo d’Apartment Story, una petita, però intensa experiència escrita i dirigida per Sean Wenham. A Apartment Story ens posarem a la pell d’Arthur, un jove, que fa vida al seu apartament com podem fer qualsevol de nosaltres, es fa el menjar, es posa música, seu al sofà a mirar la tele, es masturba o fuma quelcom que no sembla tabac. Sí, totes aquestes accions són les que podrem fer en aquest joc PEGI 18, per si algú ho dubtava. Com si es tractés d’un Sims, passarem el temps alternant aquestes accions mentre estem atents a certes barres d’energia, segons les necessitats d’anar al WC, menjar o estar entretingut. La cosa, però no acaba aquí, per què a Apartment Story ens trobem amb un thriller amb totes les lletres, en cert moment apareixerà un segon personatge, Diane, que vindrà a complicar la història considerablement. A partir de llavors nosaltres decidirem com continuarà la història, ajudarem a Diane amb el seu “problema” o en patirem les conseqüències? No vull explicar gaire de la història, ja que paga la pena cadascun dels seus girs argumentals. L’estil visual del joc fa servir aquest mal anomenat efecte PS1, pocs polígons i molts filtres que creen una atmosfera esgarrifosa espectacular. Es tracta d’un joc en què cada partida durarà uns 90 minuts aproximadament i no són moltes les opcions que podrem escollir, però pels seus gairebé 7 € que costa actualment a Steam, va molt la pena provar i endinsar-nos en aquest malson anomenat Apartment Story. No és un joc de 10, ni de bon tros, però si un que et fa rumiar, i això, avui dia, no és habitual. Per tant, un servidor, des d’aquí sempre estarà al cantó de Sean Wenham i el seu estudi Blue Rider Interactive.