Conspiracy!

It's a short and sweet logic puzzle with some topical humor.

It's a nice little quaint experience, super short, but that's why it's under a dollar. I landed at 101 minutes, after having to restart because a glitch had me get extra progress "for free" after about 38 minutes of gameplay. So, anyways, it's a multistage puzzle that requires a bit of external knowledge, but for the most part it works. The trick it uses bit "too much" is needing to check which years had certain dates land on certain weekdays, which felt clever the first time but just minorly annoying the others. On the flipside, the very last pair of clues have to be guessed since there's no indication of which order they have (annoyingly one of them is referenced among the first clues of the game, but either the developers forgot to add the other necessary hints for that deduction or thought the order was obvious). The tone is [i]alright[/i]. Some very obvious references but twisted just enough for added humour. It's not the bleeding edge of satire, but it does provide flavour. It has funny moments (one of the concepts is hilarious) - just don't expect the "uproarious satirical comedy" provided. I guess it could work better on a different medium and/or with an expanded epilogue. A major point of contention is the lack of subtitles for a game with tons of audio content. I'd "get" this lack of accessibility if maybe there were some hidden details in the audio logs that demanded your full attention to figure out, but that wasn't the case.

Much more satirical than Rivals and I think the game is missing a certain bite to it to really nail its satire. There's a monologue in there about conspiracies as a source of comfort to try and explain a complicated world. There's a counter monologue that (unconsciously from the character) presents conspiracy circles as a comfort because it provides community for lonely people. I think leaning into that vulnerability could make for a compelling drama, but that might hurt the lighter tone of the game's intent. In which case, why not lean into the cruelty inherent in a conspiracy theorist? A conspiracy theorist, at its core, is a person who cherry-picks and manipulates evidence to fit pre-supposed ideas. To reject reality in favor of personal bias and supposition. Maybe that's difficult, mechanically, to really convey, but I think the game's broad approach to treat the whole ideology of a conspiracy theorist with kids' hands leaves the experience a little lacking. But then again, its an hour long puzzler. Its not actually aspiring to be greater than that, and that's to its strength. A game that knows what it is is good!

Interesting premise for a game, decent UI and simple in how it works. Even the story itself, hokey as it may be has it's moments. However the whole thing is a big let down because it uses artificial obscurity to create the puzzles. You have newspaper articles and recordings of podcasts, but have the dates held back from you for no reason other than to create a puzzle. It just fees artificial. Add to this that after the first batch of clues the whole game gets significantly easier and it feels like a big anti-climax.

This was a pretty fun way to spend an hour or so. I think it would be better if the puzzles were less linear - it really feels like you can only solve the 5 or so you must at every step. Also, I found listening to the tapes a bit tedious to extract information. It would have been nice to have transcripts of them for quick reading.

It’s ok for what it is but it feels like a good idea not quite fully executed? If there was a bit more to it I think I’d have really enjoyed it, but essentially once you’ve completed the sort of tutorial-esque part of the puzzle you’re already a quarter of the way done, and the more you solve the easier it gets, so just by doing the ‘tutorial’ you significantly lessened the difficulty, it’s also very linear and so it doesn’t take particularly much puzzling to get the answers you need. I think if the game was a bit bigger it would be quite good, but as it is its basically over before it has time to get interesting For the price it is I can’t say I don’t recommend it, but manage your expectations and don’t go into it expected a full afternoon of puzzling

Берём Возвращение Обра Динн и упрощаем, уплощаем, во всех смыслах. Как и в многих других детективных играх упомянутых в видосе от GMTK тут надо распутать события, а точнее их последовтельность. У нас есть 20 событий и 20 дат, есть стартовая инфа в виде нескольких текстов и отрывка аудио, и возможность навесить до 8 дат. за 5 правильных дат игра фиксирует результат и выдаёт дополнительные тексты и аудио. получаем 4 отрезка игры, на последнем становится совсем просто тк часть дат будут понятны а те что непонятны можно перебрать буквально одной перестановкой по остаточному принципу. такой вот примитивный геймплей основная сложность которого в "услышать что там в аудио говорят и распарсить акцент". ну из фишек - события иногда отсылаются к реальности и чтобы понять в каком временном периоде они происходят - возможно придётся погуглить что-то, банально узнать в каком году 16 сентября выпадало на субботу (условно). Но в целом тут не очень много "игры вне игры", да и вообще интерфейсно игра - это один экран, минималистичней некуда. И опять про тайминг - у меня ушло чуть больше двух часов, можно было успеть и рефанднуть, с другой стороны игра стоит копейки. Стоит ли она своих копеек? ну, кажется есть более хорошие и интересные примеры детективов, но и такой сойдёт.