Floor 13: Deep State

Great Concept: Terrible Execution As somebody who enjoyed the 90's abandonware cult classic 20+ years ago, I thought I knew what I was getting into with this one. Unfortunately, the retro mechanics and retro UI turn this one just barely into a 'do not recommend.' Starting out with the good, the theme is something pretty unique: a modern day black ops agency in present day London. This is the same as the cult classic original, but the plots are all "ripped from the headlines" type of present day stuff. Ever want to suppress the Downing Memo leak by arranging the murder of a journalist in a freak mugging gone wrong? Sounds pretty cool, right? Well... I know this game is supposed to be hard and unforgiving (like the classic), but the game does this by being as obtuse as possible. You have very limited tools, almost no feedback, and a UI that doesn't even include mouseovers. (I'm assuming the dev's wanted to release this as a mobile game?) You'll routinely be investigating people and not even remembering why. Is there a way to look up the original report? Nope. Also, said briefing is always no more than three sentences. (See screenshots.) It only gets worse when you get simultaneous missions going. If only the dev's put in a murder-board or even a basic folder system... And again, just like the classic, there's no resolution or conclusion when you wrap a case/plot. Which is often confusing and usually dissatisfying. There are multiple solutions, but basically no feedback on if you could've done better or worse. You get a note that the following suspects are no longer being tracked and sometimes a news event that you have to figure out is related to the case. That's it. Was a full neutralization possible, or was that they best I could do? Was killing that random dude relevant or not? Guess I'll have to try on the replay... (Speaking of save-scumming, did I mention the game is quasi-Ironman? Playing a game this hard might be tolerable if it had a quicksave/load.) I get it, it's a faithful adaptation of the original, but this level of no-hand-holding just doesn't fly anymore.

Don't get me wrong, this game sounds fantastic on paper, but it just doesn't do well at explaining what you're actually meant to do. As a prologue, you're given a probationary period as a kind of edge into the game - the names will change for the characters, but the scenario is the same no matter how many times you start it - you have one suspect who is going to commit a terrorist attack in a train station. Your job as Director General is to use the powers of the government departments to stop them. But... aside from telling you to read reports and check suspects, the game will give you no more hints about what you should be doing or thinking about. I get that that is some people's cup of tea, but for new players who haven't played the previous game or want an easier time, a walkthrough or guided tutorial would be helpful here. Later reports don't get any better either - you get a report and some suspects, you can send in surveillance and pursuit teams, search their houses and offices and even bring the suspects in; but the game provides no feedback on if what you're doing is right or what your aim is. My first few days in the main game went as so: - New report involving a celebrity, MP and a controversial bridge - Dispatch pursuit and surveillance teams and search the houses. - Reports come back - celebrity goes out and comes back, as does the MP. Nothing is found in the homes. - The architect shows up, repeat the process again. He visits his pub and there's mural on the wall. - A journalist arrives in your suspect pile for triggering a code word. You watch him and search his house and office. Nothing is found. - A columnist also appears - you do the same tried and test method, because it worked so well the first four times. - The game complains you're not making any progress and you should use all available departments, despite not giving you any leads to work with. - You're not sure who any of these people are, what the problem you're supposed to be dealing with is or where to go next. You can't go back and look at yesterday's reports, because they're not kept anywhere. You can flick through the suspect notes, but its a mishmash of random people, location blueprints and item notes (with no filtering or sorting either). - On a whim (and at the advice of the game in order to use more departments), you abduct the journalist and take him for questioning. - You board a Tube train and the contact tells you you're being too careless and drawing too much attention, because you used all the government departments. - You realise you confused the journalist and columnist, so you sign an order to abduct the columnist too. Since there's no direction given to you, it might turn out okay. - A new woman enters the suspect pile, she says there's no horsemeat in any food products (good to know, but I thought we were working on bridges or something). - A couple of days later, the Department of Oversight calls for the removal of all bridge-related materials, including suspects. You're left with a confused detained journalist and a woman selling horsemeat. Is that it? Did I win? Was it a good outcome? These questions aren't answered, so it almost seems like it's filler - do it for the sake of doing it, rather than because it has an outcome. It's both relieving - because I had no idea what was going on in the first place (and now its over) - and frustrating. Was there meant to be an outcome that I didn't get? Who knows. And that's where we're up to so far. I understand this is supposed to be a hard game where choices matter, but with no explanation as to what's going on or specific feedback on your actions, in its current state it feels pointless even playing it. All in all, I want to love this game. The description on Steam and Humble makes it sound so good. But it needs some improvements for it to be enjoyable for the most part, and until it gets those, you're probably going to be confused and disappointed buying it right now.

I really want to like this kind of game, but I just can't bring myself to. Throughout the game, there is very little feedback to your actions and it's not even apparent what your goal- if any -you're trying to pursue on that particular case. It's important for a game like this to provide as much information to the player as possible when it comes to considering their actions. This allows for the player to intuit the 'logic' of the game and come from each level with a furthered mastery. From the very beginning of Floor 13 however, nothing is really made clear. I suppose that this is intended to be the challenge of the game in some regard, but even the hardest puzzles will give you /something/ to be able to eventually solve the puzzle. That thing does not exist in Floor 13 however, so you just end up feeling kind of lost and confused about the entire thing.

The original Floor 13 was an obtuse and dry game of spycraft via bureaucracy and this sequel stays true to the original. Practically speaking, all you do is read news reports and order teams to surveil, pursue, arrest, and murder people who may be related to the plot. Every couple of days a new plot starts from a random assortment of the game's standard plots. For instance, and this is entirely made up by me so it probably does not reflect how the game actually plays, you might get a report that a celebrity is making pronouncements that could potentially be embarrassing for the government. You search the celebrity's house and have him followed and he is meeting with a foreign accountant. The foreign accountant is followed and you find literature pertaining to an terrorist group. You infiltrate the terrorist group, arrest the accountant, and subject him to level 2 interrogation procedures according to the standard Bureau of Agriculture procedures and guidelines (I.e. he's about to start losing body parts.). He gives the name of a financier, who you order a hit on. Two days later you get a report that the celeb has checked into rehab and is recanting his statements. The polls only take a minor hit. All paperwork pertaining to this case is pulled from your desk and shredded. Not every case is so easy and you might spend a couple days staring at dossiers of completely irrelevant places and people wondering if this plot is actually going anywhere. Your health are the polls, a ranking of how much the government is favored. If you fail to stop a plot or abduct/murder someone too high profile to get away with, you get a nasty news report that will tank the polls and your job evaluation is unlikely to go well. Again, this game is incredibly obtuse, as was the original. There were a few stories in the original game that had no possible way for you to avoid the poll hits from them (I can't say the same here but I am not far enough in to have seen them all.), and others just require psychopathic levels of abduction and torture of not particularly suspicious looking suspects to find the correct route through. (Though you can probably be certain that the muslim guy is not going to be the correct guy to kill in the "Our schools are being islamified" case because no story writer in the last 20 years would dare risk THAT sort of thing so you can probably just blindly eliminate the first English name that comes out of that case and win it automatically... maybe, but this is why you shouldn't rip from the headlines because we know you're going to be writing a Law and Order episode when you do that.) Timidity and just watching people for a while will lead you to surprise bad ends to the cases. You will have to retry the game a couple times and learn the right paths through the game's cases to get through to the end. While the game has a lot of gray, rain soaked London buildings to set the mood for the scenes, they have a lot of transitions that really slow the gameplay down. Practically speaking all you do each day is read 7 sheets of paper, click to assign maybe 4 teams on an exciting day and none if you are just waiting for the procedural interrogation techniques to yield results, and end the day, and even sped up these transitions take about a half second to a second per click. It is tolerable and does a lot for the atmosphere but for a game you have to repeat doing very little a LOT it is certainly a pain. Unfortunately, I have to change this review to negative because of how trivially easy it is to softlock the UI. Simply attempting to click through reports quickly will cause the office UI to freeze. Quitting in this state leaves your savegame in an indeterminate state where you are at the previous day but the previous day's reports are not executed properly. This is a game about doing ONE THING, clicking boxes and filing reports. I cannot accept a game releasing with errors like that.

Go Find the Floor 13 original game. It doesn't hold hands and is ten times better then this so called game. I love the original because it is a thinking game. This seems to have little to no consequence and No Mr. Garcia coming.

I really, genuinely, honestly like this game. In spite of the fact that it actively tries to ensure that I hate it. I LOVE the idea of a procedurally generated spy game. One where there isn't a fixed series of missions and challenges, and you just have to go with the flow and fix/hack/bludgeon your way through crises as they occur. But when you combine the near-randomness of that with an *extremely* opague gauge for success... okay, I can see how well or poorly the government is doing in the polls (though that might have been due to an entirely uncontrollable event which dropped literally yesterday, and I'm meeting them to discuss my career tomorrow), but then the "Operational exposure" gauge is something you have to just keep guessing until you're invited in for a talk... ... well, I can see why a lot of people don't like to play this game. I enjoy playing this. Every time. Right up until I think I'm doing great and then oh dear the kompromat dropped today and your meeting with the Cabinet Office is tomorrow. Byeee. But seriously, it could be made better with some kind of balancing work. I mean, look at the achievements. Only 3.3% of people have completed Chapter One! I can't even tell you how bad that is because I have no idea how many chapters there are because I can't complete Chapter Two! I want this to be a better, more fun game than it is, and that probably won't happen, so I will take what I can. I always enjoy this, right up to the point where it's over because I had no choice but to fail. It's good, it's frustrating, and it fills me with hate sometimes, but in spite of that it is genuinely good.

[quote] 关注 [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/36224058/]老实人鉴赏家 [/url] 老实人评测，不恰烂钱，给您带来最老实的评测。 [/quote] 尽管制作组Oversight Productions一再强调《第13层：深层政府（Floor 13: Deep State）》是一款反乌托邦题材的文字游戏作品，但直到现在，我对这个似乎是显而易见的结论仍持保留意见。 的确，正如游戏标题表明的那样，在长达几小时的流程里，我们确实充当了作为一个“乌托邦”式集权政府的狗腿子，不择手段地使用包括并不限于跟踪，监视，搜查，绑架甚至暗杀等肮脏手段完成救人民于炸弹的光荣任务，但正如联络人所说的那样，“没有人会因此感谢我们”。而更离谱的是，这一次显然老大哥不是站在我们这边的——更准确地说，这一次他异常坚定地现在了我们的对立面，用那双与“游戏机制”息息相关的大眼睛死死盯着自己人，从而完美地解决了“谁来监视监管者”这一伴随人类文明发展一路而来的亘古难题。 于是和大家理解的“反乌托邦”游戏极为相似又截然不同，当玩家随着镜头以第一人称视角走出总是阴霾着的“黑衣修士”，在十三层的部门办公室等待他的的确是足以藐视众生的权柄和写满了整个国家秘密（但玩家只能阅读很少的一部分）的庞大资料库，此时与玩家高度重合的主角只需坐在办公桌前，便可以用漂亮的花体签名决定那些昔日普通职员，文体明星，本国政要，现在通通是触发了“监听关键词”的潜在犯人的隐私秘密甚至生死存亡，但当有人嫌弃玩家没能力把这“黑活儿”干得优雅而隐蔽，总是会有意想不到的对手找上门来，毫不畏惧地挑战玩家和这政府部门的脸面。 例如，某天自己派去监听的小弟不小心漏了马脚，那么玩家的部门大概率便会引来不知道哪个小报添油加醋的阴谋论轰炸，逼迫玩家不得不从金库里拿出数量不小的经费反过来败坏他们的名誉，还往往会因为对方名头不响而收效甚微。那既然如此，咱们简单粗暴点直接把小报记者“请过来”好好聊聊，或者干脆让他永远闭嘴总可以了吧？不好意思，这时候小报记者们又摇身一变成了颇具影响力的意见领袖，其无故失踪几乎一定会引起更加猛烈的舆论抨击。 而就在这样的条件下，玩家扮演的主角还要义无反顾地顶着巨大的压力，义无反顾地一天天花费人力物力对每一个“莫须有”的嫌疑人展开监视，因为没人知道不哪一天会发现什么不得了的秘密；伺候好那些高高在上的政客，不让他们的民调因为上文提及的“必要的代价”而大幅下降下降；在文件中整理出国内恐怖组织的蛛丝马迹，保证未来不会再有炸弹给平民政要带来什么苦涩的惊喜…… 更让人心寒的是，当我们面对举世嚣嚣的口诛笔伐时，那些高高在上的大人物们非但不出手相助，还反过来指责玩家办事不利，就只是责令及时整改否则强制退休，好像我是故意主动陷入这个说不清道不明的烂摊子似的——想想看这应该就是小报记者们能有恃无恐地逐腥而来的最主要原因吧，毕竟他们生活在了一个如此开明的乌托邦时代，政府会竭尽所能捍卫正义与个人的言论自由，始终站在人们的同一边对玩家越界行为和没能及时破案的渎职大加指责——您别说，倒是的确不落窠臼，表现出了大部分同类作品无力呈现的“乌托邦”的美好，但其表面政府行为之迷惑而虚伪，怕不是乔治奥威尔本人泉下有知，都不介意与世上再走一遭，就只为能亲口骂上一句寡廉鲜耻。 然而，这种与文学概念和艺术设定上的反乌托邦相去甚远的情况却意外的很真实，真实到我们几乎能立刻根据游戏序章中的种种信息将这故事还原成英国军情五处和爱尔兰共和军始于上世纪八十年代的“相爱相杀”。 作为爱尔兰新芬党党曾经的武装机构，如今早已不活跃在世界政治舞台上的爱尔兰共和军恐怕已经被新一代的年轻人逐渐遗忘了，但若以恐怖分子病态的认知作为判断标准，那爱尔兰共和军作为有着近百年历史的“老派劲旅”无疑是所有恐怖组织仰止的吾辈楷模，其无数针对英国本土（名义上的）行之有效的爆炸袭击造成的恐慌甚至比曾呼啸着飞向伦敦的V2火箭更胜一筹，1979年对路易斯.蒙巴顿勋爵——这个在当时英国甚至比伊丽莎白女王更具影响力的王室成员精确的斩首行动（其实附带损伤中有两名当地青年）更是教科书般完美地诠释了恐怖行动的意义，既以最小的成本，传达出自己最让人心生畏惧的恐怖之声。 而作为对这种“勇敢发声”的回应，在《第13层：深层政府》涉及的八十年代，这个愈发猖狂的组织自然也受到了时人英国首相的撒切尔夫人和军情五处的高度关注，于是正如游戏表现的那样，无数经验丰富的文职特工和表现出刑侦天赋的谍报新人便受邀进入了“十三楼”的办公室，一边利用发达的信息网络调查潜藏在平民的恐怖分子，一边安插大量线人特工从而一个不留地根除这群恐怖分子。 如今英国，尤其是北爱尔兰的百姓们应该暗自庆幸，当年那些谍报精英确实比我们这些打游戏的阿宅不知道高到哪里去了，在他们的不懈努力下，到了爱尔兰共和军真正着手停火的千禧年初，包括新芬党议会办公室负责人“”最高领导人丹尼斯·唐纳森和爱尔兰共和军内务部队首席审判官“赌注之刀”弗雷迪·斯卡帕迪奇的多数高层成员都被证明早已和军情五处展开了合作，在这种情况下还要负隅顽抗简直就是自取其辱。 而这一切的代价又是什么呢？以弗雷迪·斯卡帕迪奇为例，2003年揭秘的资料显示，作为内务部队的首领，他很可能不得不在军情五处的默许下对同样派来卧底的英国特工严刑逼供并实施处决，才可能博得手段残忍的爱尔兰共和军的信任，而下达这类命令的很可能就是某个玩家这样的，端坐在办公桌背后的文职特工……好吧，目前在游戏《第13层：深层政府》中，我还没需要过类似的状况需要玩家签字决定，但对比历史史实，我们会发现整个游戏糟心的难度也确实有了几分合理性，为了掩护这些真正刀头舔血的战士，不让他们自己连同多年的努力被恐怖分子付之一炬，玩家必须不遗余力地把这场战争隐藏在暗影之下，既不能用明目张胆的咄咄逼人强迫爱尔兰共和军狗急跳墙，也不能让民众在惶惶不得终日里慢慢失掉了希望。 当这种与历史息息相关的真实原原本本地表现在《第13层：深层政府》的游戏性上时，带来了就是文字类游戏特有的，毫无道理且反游戏的那种困难：没有人会向您指出自己某个选择的优劣，是否还有其他更适合当下情况的解法；游戏涉及的方法有时立竿见影有时迟迟不见成效，亦没有任何明显的标志会作为及时而精确的反馈向玩家指出自己某项选择带来了怎样的后果，又将如何影响接下来故事剧情的发展；而当玩家作为部长已然酿成大错，尽管上级一再催促，威胁玩家务必尽快处理好自己搞出来的烂摊子，然而……我怎么知道自己到底应该怎么处理这种问题？尤其是我根本就不知道自己在哪个案子上究竟犯了什么错误才招致老大哥的特别关注…… 这样的前提下，玩家便由主动在游戏交互中不断精进的人类变成了被困在斯金纳箱里的小白鼠，只能在不断的试错中模糊地判断自己可能的错误——而考虑到真正的斯金纳白鼠还有食物作为试错成功的及时反馈，玩家的境遇更像是被制作组关起来写作的猴子，能不能打出一部《仲夏夜之梦》就全看概率了；而与此同时，Oversight Productions旨在丰富游戏内容而采取的随机内容生成系统又基本上牢牢堵住了玩家背板通关的可能性——您说只要穷尽了Oversight Productions为《第13层：深层政府》设计的所有案子依然能够顺利通关？理论上的确如此，但考虑到除了游戏教程那个“恐怖袭击”外，我还没怎么碰到过相同的案件，只能在此祝你好运，至少比我更加幸运可以早一点熟悉各类案件的大致流程和真实解法，早日看到让我垂涎久矣的通关动画。 对了，作为一名国人玩家，您还需要忍受《第13层：深层政府》相当“便宜”的汉化质量，我想在一款99%的时间都需要和文字打交道的游戏里，这样的痛苦不言自明；更恐怖的是，就算您能凭借多年机翻阅读经验勉强读通游戏文字的含义，那些活跃在游戏文本中让人真假难辨的暗语也会让中文玩家的阅读体验直线下降…… 总之《第13层：深层政府》作为一款游戏，尤其是一款有意愿进入国区市场的游戏作品恐怕难称及格，甚至糟糕透顶，但思考良久后我发现，《第13层：深层政府》真正可以被视为缺陷的恐怕只有汉化质量这一个问题，在某种程度上，造成这游戏不好玩的种种元素皆源于其对拟真性的需求，而这结合真实历史对西方自由世界的嘲讽恰恰继承了“奥威尔式反乌托邦”对民主制度与时俱进的反思：即便是在“爱尔兰共和军”活跃的那个时代，西方政府都不得在行使反恐职能时保证民众自由的假象，那么随着互联网的高度发展，曾隐藏在民主自由之下的精英主义逐渐浮出水面，成为平民对立面的今天，自由民主的“乌托邦”又将以何种面目继续示人？或者正如克里斯托弗·拉希千禧年初那彼时看来不可思议的发问，民主还值得继续存在吗？ 可能这种感觉又是我自己牵强附会的脑补？也许吧，但事实已然证明克里斯托弗·拉希的在《精英的反叛》中做出的种种预言绝非杞人忧天，类似“克莱翁干翻伯利克里”的闹剧在这预言的十几年后如期上演，其余波至今仍是你我茶余饭后的消遣。 这样看来，《第13层：深层政府》完全可以被认为是一款借古讽今的“反乌托邦”精彩小品，恰到好处地出现在了这西方民主不得不考虑转型的拐点，从而赋予了自己相当不错的收藏价值……这么说《第13层：深层政府》还是很物有所值的。 当然，既然这游戏已经不是抢先体验阶段了，那还是尽快修修BUG和游戏卡顿问题吧，有时候这些东西还是挺烦人的。

Very disappointed. They could have done so much more with this. I loved the original game back in the day, it was a great idea. This is just a reproduction of it, with graphics that are messy, annoyingly long load times and sequences between days/events etc., slow and unnecessarily difficult. I was expecting some new features, or at least advancements on game play. What a disappointment.

I am enjoying the idea of it and the consequences of your actions having an effect on the game. You are a Director General. You will not be thanked for your service. Your greatest recognition is being unrecognized for the countless acts of security and safety you provide for the ministry. Reflect poorly on the ministry with scandals and mismanagement? Enjoy your involuntary retirement. There are some bugs however, with orders needing to be rescinded twice for them to actually go away, and orders not showing up when you want to review them. Definitely a great game so far, although for a 'point and click' I believe the price tag is a bit pricey. This is a $15 game at best.

The original is better, and free. This game was incredibly boring in comparison, and I feel like there was less overall. Less features, less paths to take, less motivation to keep playing.