I don't begrudge my time in this software. It's kind of charming, it has a bit of a story to tell you that ends with an investigation of "forgiveness", but I also felt the story was incoherent and what gameplay there was is almost an afterthought, a spot of busywork to make it feel like a bit like a game.
But don't be mislead, this is not a game. It comes close to being a game, but it won't let you fail, there are no meaningful decisions or choices to make, despite the veneer of decisions or choices. It's a walking simulator that capers about in the skin of an actual game that offers the illusion of choice.
You will go from one self-contained island to the next, roam around a bit, do a few jumping exercises (to call them puzzles is a disservice to the word) with no real penalty for failure, collect a few items if you want to (there's probably a minimum you need to collect) with no penalty for failure, and ultimately mix up a few drinks in a minigame that won't let you proceed until you've done it right. (I will spoil this much: use A and D to jiggle the glass while mixing drinks with bugs, as it tends to keep them still and they won't fly around and eff up their positioning.)
I'm not against this sort of thing. I played a lot of 1000x Resist which doesn't even give you the illusion of choice, it was a straight-up linear story. This too is a straight-up linear story. You get some conversational choices, but it doesn't really matter which you take. There's no fail states, the conversation will go the way it goes regardless of what you say. In fact, you could probably write an undergrad-level disseration entitled, "The Illusion of Choice in Modern Society," and tie all this in to any number of other topics in a scathing indictment of consumer culture or whatever. But I digress more than usual.
I thought the story was incoherent. Maybe it's leaning really heavily on allusions I'm not getting, because I'm kind of a pop-culture barbarian. Or maybe it's just half-baked and it's not that smart. I can't go into specifics without spoiling it, so I'll just say a lot of concepts in that story are introduced, but never adequately explained to my satisfaction. "But François," you might argue, "perhaps some things are mysteries and can not be explained!" and that might be true, but that's not the vibe I get here. I get "general incuriosity" as a vibe, a personal, cardinal sin for me.
Tackling that is going to get even more off-topic and I guess I want to wrench this derailing train of a review back onto its tracks. There's a LOT going on in this game in terms of theme that the protagonist, idiot that he is, is wildly incurious about. I'm not. I'm not satisfied. It's not a deep conversation and it'd lean perilously close to stoner philosophy, like, "What if cats were aliens, maaaan?" kind of thing. But if you're going to raise questions in the context of a game universe, I also want answers, or at least an indicator of where the answers lie.
Harumph.
Did I mention how annoying I found the mixology part? The glass-shaking thing I only twigged onto near the end, and having done so, would have shaved 15 minutes off my playtime, perhaps.
So, like I said, I don't begrudge this. I guess there's room for a sequel with a far more inquisitive protagonist, one who can shoulder my own all-consuming curiosity a lot better. Just go in expecting light meandering and some conversatin' and a few bits of busywork to keep you busy just long enough.
You know, I hate advertising so, ffff, if you care for more rambling and no mealy-mouthed over-corporate nonsense, I've got a lot more of this sort of thing. It's in the profile. I'll leave the rest to you.
