Event[0]

Event[0] is a game that has very unfortunately been negatively impacted by AI becoming more prominent in everyday life. This is, obviously, through no fault of the developers! Sometimes games hinge on a core element, like graphical fidelity, or a unique gimmick. If the landscape of the world changes so that that gimmick or quality is no longer outstanding, no longer unique? The entire piece of media can totally fall flat. Games made in the early 2000s to show off the current capabilities of technology can look sort of silly to modern audiences. I played Event[0] before LLMs were really around in any meaningful way, and as a result, the interactive elements of speaking to a character through a dialogue box? It was gripping, and helped me maintain interest and keep pushing through the rest of the game. This is certainly by design - you are not offered much to keep your attention grabbed at first, other than the opportunity to have a chat with a fictional AI. Nowadays, this is not only a less intriguing and inviting concept, but it is also done better - Event[0]'s AI is not a LLM, and as a result, kind of awkwardly and obtusely ignores or redirects what you say. That artifice really worked in a pre-chatGPT world, but unfortunately now, it leads a player to immediately see through the ruse. To immediately be able to see past the very well crafted curtains that once hid the innerworkings and limitations of this gameplay gimmick. That said, Event[0] is still a good game AROUND its gimmick, which is why I'm still recommending it. It may have lost a fair deal of its unique pizzazz in the eyes of a modern player, but the visuals, the music, and the story are still very engaging and so the game is still an absolute treat to play through.

Event 0 is an excellent first-person adventure that caught me by surprise despite a limited setting, a human spaceship orbiting Jupiter. Interesting intro with prose and background choices. Long initial loading screen (around 1m30) to the point I thought my computer had frozen. Lots of items but no inventory and only a short perfunctory description for each. I found this lacking. The puzzles were few but very clever, especially the one to get in the first bedroom. The graphics were quite good for an indie game although I sometimes found them too dark despite the brightness cranked up. Virtually no interactions except with the AI on computer screens, Kaizen-85, who was a character in itself. I loved the text parser interface where you were encouraged to write full sentences and the sounds when you typed. I was pleasantly surprised at some of the answers I got to my inquiries. They didn't always make sense, but often enough for my tastes. Very cool how the attitude of the AI changed depending how you talked to it, being rude, polite or in between. Simply put, despite not being a real generative AI, Kaizen was fascinating and the number of possible replies was impressive. Going on spacewalks with the jetpack was both exhilirating and frustrating. Frustrating to rush back to the airlock and to stay in place, but it was a nice addition nevertheless.

I had a bit of a hard time trying to decide how to review this game, as my experience was a bit mixed. On one hand, the game looks fantastic, which a beautifully designed space station to explore, and the premise of the game which involves exploring an abandoned space station is right up my alley as well. Unfortunately, I have three major gripes with the way this game plays out: [list] [*] The game is really short. I played through the game twice, and it took me 3 hours each time. I tend to spend a lot of time exploring everywhere and reading everything too, so most people will probably beat this game in an hour or two. Given the price, that's really not a lot of playtime. [*] The story is a bit hard to follow, especially if you don't spend the time to read everything. The narrative is primarily told through the logs you find on the computer and the responses you're given by Kaizen, the terminal AI. Unfortunately, the logs are "corrupted", which means you have to sift through loads of empty logs, and the ones that are there are often missing sections, making them hard to understand. Kaizen givens you narrative during your interactions with him as well, but... [*] Kaizen can be very frustrating to interact with, and since he's a major source of lore and the primary way you play the game, this makes the game feel like a bit of a chore. When Kaizen perfectly answers your questions, the game feels really cool, but I found those interactions to be fairly rare, and most of my questions were obviously misunderstood or outright rejected by Kaizen. Almost every interaction with him involved asking the same question over and over, trying to find the right wording for Kaizen to understand what I wanted, which was not enjoyable. [/list] The game ran well and looks fantastic. Outside of the frustration with Kaizen, I didn't run into any bugs or other issues while playing. [b]TL;DR[/b] This space adventure game has a beautiful environment and a really cool premise, but has an extremely short playtime, has a fragmented story that can be quite sparse and challenging to understand, and the interactions with Kaizen leave a lot to be desired and often lead to frustration. I imagine there are probably some people who will still enjoy this game, but given these issues, I just can't recommend it.

anyone comparing it to modern LLMs is a moron. this is art, not a brainrot machine

Neat game. A little frustrating as the "AI" is actually pretty dumb. It'll respond with responses not even close to what you were asking it... Beyond that the atmosphere and graphics are pretty good. I can't recommend it though as the game crashes for me at a certain point in the game. I see it's common in the forums with no fix mentioned. Hard to recommend a game you can't finish...

The text parser used is far too basic and rudimentary for it being the main way you interact with the game. Sadly ruins any form of immersion when you have to ask the same thing in 10 slightly different ways until it parses what you said correctly.

Unique game play. Interacting with the AI (not a "modern" AI) is interesting but it did seem to nudge me along the story too quickly rather than letting me talk to it more. Worth a look. I plan to go and achievement hunt it later. Was gifted by a friend

This is certainly an interesting game with a very interesting premise: you find yourself on an abandoned space ship and you have to communicate with the ship's AI. This isn't just some kind of AI chatbot though. You have to learn how to communicate with it. While I did enjoy it, the whole game only took about 3 hours to complete. There are multiple endings, but those endings are entirely based on a choice you make in the game's final moments. Frankly, there just isn't enough here to justify a $20 price tag. If it looks interesting to you, Wishlist it and pick it up when it's on sale.

So far Event[0] is the only game that successfully made me cry. This is the first time i've grown so attached to a character. Rest in peace, Kaizen. I will not forget you.

This game is excellent. It changes the ending based on your choices and really shows who you are as a person. It’s not just about interacting with an AI — it’s about deciding what actually matters to you. That said, there are some major problems. I have a GTX 970, and that thing was running at 100% the entire time, harder than Jedi Survivor. The optimization is basically nonexistent. The puzzles are extremely difficult — I almost quit five times — but they’re also really well‑designed. Overall, it’s an 8.5/10 for me. I would absolutely play it again. Expect around 10 hours of playtime. Not the best value, but definitely worth every penny.