eXperience 112

eXperience 112 is a unique point and click adventure with a mix of horror-esque and mystery where you control, actually, you DON'T control, a person called Lea Nichols. The uniqueness comes from that you indirectly control her around the ship using the surveillance cameras that are at your disposal as the security operator. Some cameras are broken beyond repair, some have shattered screens, others are wired incorrectly; but most of them work fine - this creates an authentic feel of realism and desperation as you work together with Lea. The basic premise of the plot is that Lea awakens in a fungi-infected ship. An experiment gone wrong or intentional disaster? As the security operator, you guide Lea around collecting notes, solving puzzles and learning more behind the mystery of the post-apocalyptic world of the ship. Whilst there is no combat there are enemies that can, and will, kill Lea; being a point and click: puzzle solving, atmosphere and mysterious algorithms are what you're facing. This is obviously a budget game but what money went into this game it does well, rather than being a jack of all trades, it specialises in what made the point and click genre in the first place. The animations are a bit clunky, there's minor visual glitches, a lack of system options and other problems that I feel are not enough to detract from the, mind the pun, eXperience of this game, but are worth pointing out regardless. As said, the cameras you control don't all work, this can create unsettling and tense moments when you can only hear horrific sounds with a handicapped vision - you must guide Lea through dangerous situations like this. Sure, this isn't the best game ever made or the most innovative thing since sliced bread, but what it does it does well, but as a result the game burdens some minor flaws. No AAA polish here. Having said that, if you love mystery solving, puzzles, pure survival horror I think you will take a keen interest in this game. The way in which you collect notes/files has it so that, since you are the security operator, you must log onto the ship's data bank with a username and password (obtained from guiding Lea around) and search through the databse to your pleasure. Most of it is optional and provides a very, very detailed backstory up to the events leading to now, and other secrets that I won't spoil. But eventually, you'll need to dig around in order to progress. And the game gets real hard, you need to pay attention to Lea's comments and use the map wisely. One thing I do love about the game is, well.... I won't spoil, but load your save game up a few days -after- you last saved. :) Overall, I'd give this game a 7/10. Points deducted for minor technical flaws, poor performance in the latter stages of the game, slow pacing (the game is quit long, but that's a good thing!) and uninspired character development. Thanks for reading.

Interesting take on an adventure game. I enjoyed the novel approach of indirectly controlling the character, and choosing what you want to see through various cameras. Unfortunately you can only get 2.5 cameras going at once. The plot has some pretty amazing holes in it. The entire story as far as it gets explained to the player is mostly handed to you in some text files pretty early in the game. I was hoping there was going to some more explaining at some point, but unfortunately not. It's 1970 in the computer files, then suddenly the game takes place 30ish (?) years later with no explanation why. A lot of the game is getting codes and logins so you can read old files and emails to get MORE codes and logins. Apparently more effort was put into making little backstories for the characters in their files and emails than the plot of the actual game itself. While you don't have to click every suspicious item in a scene for things to collect like most other adventure games, you do instead basically have to check off every controllable point to ensure the character finds everything she's supposed to find. There isn't any kind of fast travel, so if you realize you need to backtrack, you basically have to slowly click a breadcrumb trail and wait around for her to catch up. It appears to be a French port, so expect some weird English voice acting. There were a couple bugs where the game didn't register some upgrades, or I moved the character out of an expected position, which basically causes the character to hang, yet not the game itself, forcing a reload. For some reason, the load times are RIDICULOUSLY long. My PC is less than a year old, but in some areas, it would take at LEAST a minute to load, which is insane for a 8 year old game, with small indoor areas. I kept playing this very slow paced game with the hopes that the story would improve. Sadly it didn't, AND I was rewarded an amazingly weak ending. I kind of wanted to recommend this....but meh.

eXperience 112 is a point and click game with a difference. You are sat behind a security camera network and the only way to communicate with the main character is by switching lights on and off. There are many puzzles to solve that inspires you to press on and reveal more of the mysterious storyline. The graphics are dated but are still detailed enough to add atmosphere to the games environment. Sound effects are very good in this game from opening metal water tight doors to voice acting. I do recommend this game however you will need patience at times. Camera's can be a little awkward to control at times and your main character does walk just a little to slow to destinations. The story on other hand is very good and keeps you interested throughout.

So I've finally finished this game after like six years after I first bought it... Why has it taken me so long? Because it's pretty badly optimized. The last part was so laggy it was unplayable on my older PC. Not such a big problem anymore, although I wouldn't say I like the actual ending and not knowing it all those years probably made me like the game somewhat more... Anyway, the game mechanics are the one thing that makes this experience worth it. It can be a bit slow. Lea sometimes require a lot of patience to navigate to any given objective, but there's a lot to read and figure out in the mean time. Controlling the surveillance system, searching for all those passwords and decoding them, taking controls of robots and other mechanized equipment (including bathysphere)... that's all just amazing. It's so disappointing not to see any more games like this – with similar mechanics and interface. It would be so at home in every second sci-fi game where you can hack cameras and security systems...

Already finished once before buying it on steam, I like the idea. You are the supervisor of a scientific military base, which is deserted, and a woman is waking up. You have to help her through the cams, lights and doors to know what appened ... There is a linear story with mini-games and challenges (pretty easy), She understands easily what we want, and the universe is very nice even if it's an old game !!! It's an "experience" game, which need to be tested I think. pros : the idea, gameplay, cons : linear, boring to do twice ...

I really wanted to recommend this game, but I just cant do it. The concept sounded amazing. You dont actually control the character. You guide her through the areas by turning on lights, opening doors, and watching her through security cameras. Some cameras work fine, some dont, and at first I loved it. But the game fairly quickly devolved into getting log in codes (youre on a computer) to log into other old accounts to find more codes to open doors/safes/even more accounts. If the game were more about just guiding her through the cameras and exploring, It probably would have bumped this review into a recommend. Graphically, the game is dated. Still retains a lot of creepy atmosphere, but the character animations are a bit strange sometimes. Audio wasnt bad, but the voice acting wasnt that great. I didnt mind it, but she reminded me of a computer voice. She didnt really react or show emotion. The largest draw back for me was just how buggy the game was. Sometimes the character would get stuck and you would need to reload. There is a robot vehicle part that got stuck. Sometimes events by objects wouldnt trigger. The game itself would crash if I opened it and had Skype running in the background (no idea why), and sometimes alt tabbing would trigger errors. Even with all the negative, the story was interesting, but not interesting enough for me to try and stick it out. All of the fighting with camera angles, codes, emails, and bugs broke immersion way too often for me to stick it out for the sake of the story. As it is, I cant recommend it. If you do give it a try, I honestly hope you have better luck with it than I did bug wise.

I wanted to like this game for the unique (or at the very least, non-standard) gaming experience it represents. Indirectly guiding a non-player character through an adventure using nothing but your own power over a decaying security system? "Sign me up!" I cried. The reality unfortunately fell short of my high expectations. A good portion of the early-to-mid game is spent directing the focal character to each and every light switch in turn, just to make sure that she stops and searches EVERY SINGLE NOOK AND CRANNY for keycards and other important objects that you often CANNOT actually see yourself due to the awkward position and orientation of the cameras. For me, this was a frustrating and drawn-out experience. Not only because it often feels like Lea Nichols moves about with all the alacrity of a pregnant sloth, but she will potentially not notice important plot items if she doesn't specifically STOP MOVING at key locations. Prompt her to move a little faster to the next light switch, and she may just miss that all-important keycard, scribbled note, or whatever-the-heck else you need to progress to the next stage of the plot. It feels like the story was supposed to carry this game, and perhaps in Europe, it did. The over-arching plot is tied together with topics ranging from secret societies and government programs, to secret terrestrial species, and secret office romance. But the delivery via the English voice-actors leaves quite a bit to be desired in the emotion department. The English-speaking Lea Nichols seems rather deadpan... Which actually contradicts what is written about her in the computer system that you're required to hack into on repeated occassions. Speaking of "computer hacking" aspect, that aspect of the game was actually somewhat interesting, requiring you to decrypt or discover the users' passwords using a variety of methods. Browsing through all of the data does take time and patience, however, and your progress in gaining access to all the user profiles is hampered by Lea's ability to find and relay ID codes and passwords hidden within the environment. There ARE interesting moments and discoveries to be made over the course of the game, but I am left feeling as though the parts of the game that I enjoyed were too few and far between for me to recommend this game to the general public.

While probably the most logical adventure game to date (you influence another character from a computer terminal, but do not interact with the environment directly,) the cons of this steaming heap far outweigh the pros. Voice acting is bad. The interface/tiny fonts are bad. The inevitable desktop clutter of the camera windows, which don't align to the window but rather overlay one another in a haphazard way is the worst-and is also the main game mechanic. Expect frequent crashes, unhandled exceptions, and critical errors without any hope of a working patch. The greatest sin of this turd is that only 90% of the game was properly translated into English. This means that you will encounter confusing dialogues and unsolvable puzzles that rely on entering a code. Early in the game, a tedious set of puzzles involving entering codes, opening e-mails, and cross-referencing a chart results in a word meant to be used as another password. The NPC repeatedly keeps reminding you of what you should be doing, but the password doesn't work. Until you realize that no one bothered to translate one part of the puzzle. The numbers that tell you what word to enter result in a proper name-in French, but the correct solution is in English. This means the game is only playable with a comprehensive walkthrough or an intimate knowledge of French and pre-Christian Greek philosophers. [Seriously.] Set in the 1970's, but chock full of anachronisms, this could have been a fun, quirky adventure. Instead it is a lesson in tedium. Example: Open this camera. Try to find an object for the NPC. Open another camera. Spend a few moments trying to fit in on your screen. Click the light switch on the hard to read map. Wait for the slowpoke NPC to travel there. Smash keyboard when you discover the automatic camera tracking decided to open a third camera on top of your other windows, then switch the cameras you had previously tweaked by hand to new ones. Listen as the NPC complains that you are taking too much time. Finally get all three windows to a size and position to see the thing you want her to pick up--oops! Unhandled exception error CTD... Reload a savegame? Sure, but don't expect it to resume where you saved. If fighting the game controls, being berated for not doing so, and constantly worrying when the next crash is coming sounds like fun to you, by all means have at it. I was lucky to buy this on sale for less than $2.00, but it's still not worth it. In fact, it's not even worth it if it were free.

Wow what the hell did I just play. This is a weird game where you basically just operate cameras the entire game and guide another character through a series of "nodes" on a mini-map while they occasionally interact with the environment. The game starts off interesting enough because it is basically a mystery game and you gotta figure out from files and the environment what happened before the game started, but quickly devolves into wait until the slow character you're guiding goes from one node to another which is about 90% of the game play (i'm using that term loosely) and oh yea almost none of the mystery is actually explained. Basically you don't know what is going on and neither does your guided character and through reading files and her (the guided) character's flashbacks(?) you learn a little about what happened, but I emphasize little because the game ends out of nowhere with a short cutscene that explains nothing and then sends you to the main menu. If I said anymore than this I would spoil the entire story because there is literally almost no actual story to be told and frankly even after reading all the files and watching all the flashbacks (if that is what they are) I still have no idea what the point of it all was. The "story" culminates with the guided character about to meet you, the camera operator, at the end of the game (and presumably have everything explained) but you never see anything of the sort, just an abrupt cut to the guided character at a completely different location from where she was before the cutscene, a few lines of dialogue from her about fulfilling a prophecy (something about aliens and humans? I don't know it is never explained), and then straight to the main menu. That is all and it is actually that abrupt. If I had to guess, there was supposed to be about another half hour to an hour of "gameplay" or at least a longer cutscene that actually explains anything at all but the developers ran out of time or money. I can see how this game, with a bigger budget and or more time, could have been a decent game but ultimately felt like a waste of time with no satisfying conclusion since you never actually see the characters meet or interact in any meaningful way at the end nor do any loose ends get tied up, in fact you could summarize this as Loose ends: untied the game. I hate that in games and even though I got this game for 90% off I still feel ripped off. TLDR: Watch a few youtube videos and you'll get a fuller experience than actually playing the "game". This game is something about spies/sabotage, something about a secret society, something about "aliens" (but not really aliens?), something about amnesia/alien drugs, something about researching said aliens, something about ancient history/passage of time. Very little is actually explained in a satisfying way, it is all just hand waved or flat out never mentioned again. I guess the devs ran out of money or expected to make a sequel.

I’m very much a newcomer to the genre of adventure games – I’ve literally played less than 10 of them in my life as of yet. But I’m getting more and more into the genre, so I decided to finally finish a game I recieved as a gift some years ago, but didn’t play at the time due to not being interested in the genre of adventure games. The game is Experience 112 – and I must say, it was pretty unique and I applaud it for sticking to it’s gimmick with conviction for like 98% of the time. (Although keep in mind – it may not be THAT unique in the end, maybe I just don’t know similar games since, as I said, I’m very much a beginner in the genre of adventure). So, what’s so unique about the game? Well. You don’t really control the main character. Instead, you merely guide her and suggest what she should do, but she does not always comply immedietely (or at all). Together, you cooperate to solve the tasks before you. The protagonist is a woman, Lea Nichols who is a researcher in a secret ship base called the EDEHN PROJECT, investigating the depths of the Earth and the mysterious creatures found there. She wakes up after a long coma, finding the ship transformed, consumed by vegetation and seemingly abandoned. But the complicated, comprehensive security system is still online… And that’s where you step in – you view the world using fixed cameras scattered through the ship. Some are broken, their screen tearing and whatnot. Some have part of their vision blocked, so you don’t always have the full view of every angle. Overall, the game constantly tries to reasure you that you’re in fact really using the security system of the ship, and it’s not a game, but a „real” thing viewed from inside the game’s world. In addition to cameras, you can also operate lights and some doors. That’s how you guide Lea through the ship – when you light a light, she goes to check it out. This way, you point her at objectives you want her to check out, and then follow her movement using the cameras. She relates all info she finds back to you, and you use it to log in to various accounts on the ships computers and read flavor texts, emails and schematics. That’s where the core of the gameplay actually lies – you have to shift through the emails and accounts to find codes to doors, or passwords to other accounts, or decriptions of the various procedures that Lea needs to accomplish. For example, you’re going to synthesize chemicals by setting the correct temperature and combining ingredients, you’re going to pilot a batyscapthe… you’re even going to communicte with mysterious beings using a pheromone-based language. All of those activities require you to follow instructions found in the password secured accounts, and the passwords and information are even further encrypted sometimes, requiring you to do some oldschool style cryptogrpahy, with coding grids and whatnot. The game is really slow, and it’s actually possible that most of it is reading. But I have to admire it for sticking to it’s premise. There are no action sequences, no flashy fights or anything. But there ARE a lot of genuine puzzles, requiring you to combine information from multiple sources to accomplish your goals. The difficullty isn’t high, I think, especially for a veteran of the genre (I’m not one, keep that in mind), but it’s still refreshing compared to some of the modern „walking sim” games who treat „find all items” as a „puzzle”. That’s not to say the game isn’t frustrating at times. The total lack of actual control over the main character can drive you a bit nuts sometimes, when she just doesn’t listen. I had to re-light some lights like dozen times to make her get there, and even then, she’s never in that much of a hurry, so wathcing her sloooowlyyyyy traverse the ship can get a bit old. I also feel that the pheromone-based language was a bit of a wasted opportunity and could be utilized more. But I defintely think the game is worth checking out if you like adventure games and don’t mind a slower approach with a lot of reading texts. I feel like this game is rather unknown, but definitely kinda original in it’s approach. If you want to check how the game actually plays before deciding if you’re interested, you can watch a bit of my blind let’s play here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLp4TpsJ7HUWU95pZr6-0nmbwaZ4I8CGVO