Broken Reality

love the game but I couldn't finish it bc I'm out of ideas what to do

[i]I only found out this game existed because the sequel came out a few days ago. I was initially planning on skipping this and go straight for the sequel but I'm glad I didn't.[/i] Broken Reality is a game that mixes exploration, puzzles and collectathons all into one package that takes place in a surreal digital world where the player is tasked with the initial goal of collecting likes to become 'viral'. The world of broken reality can best be described as a virtual world created for the late 90s internet. Think of VRChat, Second Life or Playstation Home if they were coated with the vaporwave aesthetic that was once popular back in 2015 (with a little MLG montage references sprinkled in here and there). The gameplay of Broken Reality is very reminicsent of Barrnacle, where you unlock tools and abilities in a mostly linear sequence that then allows you to go deeper into the virtual world where you can find quests, beautiful set pieces and occasionally you might stumble upon some lore. The plattforming and the puzzles all felt well balanced. Nothing felt too complex or too easy and overall I enjoyed my time with the game and ended up beating it on the same day I started it, which doesn't happen often since I take a lot of breaks when playing games. The game also does a superb job in capturing the vaporwave [b]A E S T H E T I C[/b] both with the visuals and the music. Overall, I liked the game but I wanted to like it more. A few parts of the game felt underdeveloped such as how the 'likes' worked. In the grand scheme of things their only purpose was to gate the player from entering different worlds, but personally I wish having more likes had a impact on gameplay, such as how you interact with the world or how NPCs interact with you. The story also felt it could have been more but more on that later. I also ran into a few bugs, most of which was minor ones that didn't affect my experience too much. However, one bug with the slow-motion upgrade forced me to shut down the game and boot it up again to fix it. There were also some few frustrating parts, all of which took place in the world called "Geo-City". Upon this point the game was pretty linear and it didn't communicate to me that I was missing an important upgrade that was preventing me from progressing so instead I was aimlessly walking around where the map showed me where I needed to be, thinking the game bugged out. But as it turned out I had to visit another world first before I could continue, which the game never clarified. As for the story, it is pretty simple. Early on it is revealed to the player that the world is becoming corrupted following a schism between two developers that occured when investors gets involved into what was once a pet project between friends. That is pretty much what there is to the story... or so I thought until I reached the ending sequence. The end sequence makes me think the developer tried to tell us a bit more complex story that symbolizes something, however I could be huffing copium and overanalyzing due to me wanting there to be more to it. That being said, this is a brief summarization of my theory based on the ending sequence. (SPOILER WARNING): [spoiler]The story at face value is as follows: NATEM (the virtual world) gets corrupted dues to viruses being able to replicate and you have to shut it down. There are theories that you are either a random user or the other developer who disappeared and is now returning to shut if down once and for all. I think there is a hidden meaning of the story that symbolizes living in delusion and that there are two possible ways to interpret it which is either the player dying OR getting their life back together. My theory is that throughout the entire game you are in some sort of purgatory, dreaming up a delusion of a paradise called NATAM to cope with your broken life. However the delusion is falling apart and now the only way forward is to shut it down. [b]The Death Theory:[/b] In the game, as you jump down the pit in the Innernet for the first time you enter a place called Styx, which in greek mythology is the river between the overworld and the underworld. In Styx you are guided by an orb of light called Phi. When you reach the end of Styx you jump down another pit, which could be the final stretch between Styx and the underworld. As you fall in, everything around you breaks until you are suddenly in your apartment and for the first time we get a glimpse of what the real world looked like. In your apartment are items that could be found in NATAM such as stickers and magnets of the moon, the sun and the rank badges. Your katana can be found in the closet and figurines of the passengers from the love cruise can be found on the bookshelves. Your apartment is pretty beat up and things have not gone well in life by the looks of it. There is no bed, only a mattress. In the bathroom are bottles of pills of what we can assume to be anti-depressants as well as a broken mirror that has been punched. There is also a woman in the apartment who refuses to look at you and always turns her head from you as you walk around. In the game she was a helpful assistant who helped you through your journey. Here, she probably was your girlfriend. The breakup could be the catalyst as to why you have gone down this path, or the breakup could be a result of it. The apartment shows you are living a broken life which the player tried to escape from by dreaming up NATAM. NATAM could also represent addiction to games such as Second Life where the player ignores the real world in favor of the digital world, hence the name [b]Broken Reality[/b]. But for one last time we have returned to the real word before shutting down the game... or in this case your own life. As you shut down the game at the computer you are presented with one final sequence, showing you abstract visuals as the song "ℬÆ" by 'Death's Dynamic Shroud.wmv' plays. I believe the abstract visual represents your vision as your brain is slowly dying, which only becomes more distorted as it goes on. Meanwhile as this is happening, you can hear the lyrics "I've been dying over you", "I think I've finally had enough" and "Want back my ignorance and bliss" until the visuals becomes so distorted it finally fades to black. [b]The 'Getting-Your-Life-Back-Together' Theory:[/b] Back at Styx, the orb of light that guided us through a maze brought us to a pit that looked very similar to the one we came from. My theory is that Phi guided us back to the start, giving us a second chance. As we fall in, the world breaking appart around us symbolizes us leaving NATAM for good, and when we are shut down the PC back at our apartment we are back in the real world, ready to get our life back together. When you shut down the PC, if you turn towards the woman fast enough you can see that she is looking at the player, which she refused to do earlier. Because we are finally abandoning NATAM, she can look us in the eyes again. I don't have theory as to what the visuals could mean during the very final sequence but the lyrics could still apply all the same except this time rather than having enough of living you are having enough of living a lie. [/spoiler]