Head AS Code

Starts off really boring but pays off towards the midpoint. The introduction definitely could use a bit more action or interesting dialogue but I do recommend you power through it as this game starts to get insane once you finish the first ending. It's a slow burn, even after the prologue so do note you're not going to be zooming through the story. Still, while the prologue may at first feel strangely placed, it is not at all unintentional. The only issues I had with this game is the writing in some regards. Sometimes this game will just suddenly gut-punch you with Simon making a joke that is just cringe and not at all charming, way too many references to other media at one time in an active search, or characters engaging too long in a joke that did not at all land. The characters are honestly fine, not exceptional, but are tolerable. The only characters I felt were great were Ray (honestly shocked me), A, and E. The rest are fine but I feel they're a bit underdeveloped and not very unique characters, as they more rely on the plot developments to characterize them. They lack more obvious distinctions in their personality traits and aren't as memorable as the characters I listed before. They still do get interesting backstories and while that didn't make me that much more inclined to them, it was definitely better than nothing. The story starts off slow but then becomes this timeline jumping exciting experience of trying to piece things together to solve the missing parts of other timelines. It's pretty much a puzzle and since everyone is CONSTANTLY LEAVING INSTEAD OF STICKING TOGETHER, as you progress the story, you'll have moments in which you suddenly realize who could have been where, who could have done what, the true meaning behind the events of the game, whats really happening in the station. You're constantly having theories checked, denied, or accepted and then moving to the next bit to further figure things out and I loved it! It gives the game this constant intrigue and excites you to play more and more to figure out what happened and what's going on. The story for me was the best thing HAS had to offer. Finally, the sprite art-style is a bit odd but I got used to it pretty fast, although as much as this might be rude I really think the CG style should have been used for sprites instead. I'm unsure if it's the same artist, but characters like Ray have terrible sprite art and the CGs make this problem even more apparent as you're seeing a more desirable version of these characters that the sprite work is not at all delivering on. Most of them are close enough but Ray's is just so distracting after you get to that one CG. The CG art was phenomenal and I honestly wish there were more CGs as I find that style to be very satisfying. Overall, starts off slow but picks up rapidly and becomes a very fun and entertaining mystery VN where you're just constantly wondering "What the ♥♥♥♥ is happening"

Good wee game, very much enjoyed it

This is an incredibly ambitious game made by an incredibly small team- considering that this game is *incredibly* impressive. While it's not quite perfect, it's a good experience and a good start for an interesting series. If you are looking for a complex philosophical narrative with several timelines you can seamlessly jump between, I have several small issues with the game, but only a few truly impact the experience. First, the most forgivable issue is the lack of visuals around character death. While there are several reasons for it (adding at least a dozen or so CGs would be timely and costly), it can feel... odd after you notice how we almost never see anyone's actual body when death is fairly frequent. At first I assumed it was some kind of sensitivity to violence thing, and then we got some in detail death descriptions and a rare violent CG and it feels very... tell don't show at times. There were times where I fully lost tract of who died and had to go back to the logs just because I couldn't remember and some for of visual indication would have helped. Overall this is not a big deal, and the art that exists is very pleasant, but if this game is ever remade/remastered I believe it would make a big help to establish a stronger tone to show some of the bodies and add a few more art assets for clarity. For achievement hunters- don't! It's not worth it. You will probably have to replay each of the puzzle rooms at least three or four times (and some novel sections as many as eight) to read all of the possible dialogue options that are required for the several achievements the require you to read all of the text in the game. I went back and choose basically every alternate option whenever I could, and I barely had half by the time I got to the true end. My only true issue for this game is the writing. I do think the plot is generally good and fairly thought out... but the dialog and tone can be weird or almost unbearable at times. Some characters will dance around light curse words or intense subjects like a preschool teacher and then a chapter later curse like a sailor and then make some wild sexual innuendos. It's mostly our narrative character Simon that's the issue (he is incredibly inconsistent and often a bit unlikable) but its an issue with most characters. He a bit of a pervert, a coward, weird (he makes more than one weird joke about his unrequited crushes weight for example) and a wallows about several things that just are (partially to entirely) his fault... I see the inspiration (If you know you know) but he was maybe not the best choice as an MC. Almost everyone has some faults though, from making very specific references, making unbearable puns, or spouting over thought experiments that they do not have any business knowing... but while the frequency is often enough I can't call the writing.. good. Finally, the puzzles. This game has a habit of solving puzzles for you. If an object needs a specific item iteration for you to proceed, the game will complete that interaction as long as you have the item... even if it's your first time interacting with the object. Other puzzles will simply be auto-completed by the MC as he describes how he did so without any input on your end. Since some of the puzzles we do have agency over are often misleading in their instructions, this isn't ideal but it's not the worst. The next game almost over-corrects this issue so... hand in there! While I will complain, I also don't think it's SO bad that it's worth skipping the game. Also, the newer game has some similar issues but is much less frequent and far improved, so I'd argue it's worth sticking out for!

Wants to be a Notary Game so bad, but isn't. Not the worst crime, since 999 is a masterpiece and even a poor imitation is still a decent game. Enjoyable navigation with the ability to skip unseen text, some genuinely surprising endings and a thoroughly used and enjoyed feature that shows which items and dialogue have already been viewed for optimal replay and 100% completion value). Also, the game has an in universe justification for its meta structure as well as some fourth wall breakings that worked pretty well for me. However! - most if not all of the major characters go underdeveloped. Despite routinely giving you choices of who to explore rooms and make small talk with, I very rarely felt I understood a character's motivations. Characters are established as shady or trustworthy or ♥♥♥♥♥♥ or down to earth, but there were maybe 3 characters who wouldn't act the same as every other character in any situation (and one of those is a girl who is blind and deaf, so). Even your character's established best friends are flat, they both have at least one timeline where they turn on you/make some allegedly wildly out of character choice, and it completely fumbled for me just because I barely understood what acting IN character would look like for them. Plus, the game definitely suffers from ending fatigue - while it at least makes narrative sense that [spoiler] there's no massive fight with the major villain of the game [/spoiler], it doesn't make the [spoiler] villain sits and exposition dumps the entire plot to you [/spoiler] trope less overdone mindnumbingly boring. Good outweighs the bad though in my opinion. The mystery sustains with some truly ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ insane endings towards the end that really ramp up your desire to find the truth (even if that isn't exactly rewarded; see above). Beat the entire thing completely, including 100% completion of all rooms and areas, in about 6 hours, so if it's a rainy day and you enjoyed 999, pick it up.

Preparing myself for a Decide 4 God playthrough (I was turbo-broke for some time, so only got it recently), I decided to revisit the older games when I realized that... I hadn't actually played the whole way through HASC's remake. I played the original version a long time ago, and I did START the remake before, but then I stepped away and I guess my memories of the original version later tricked me into thinking I did finish the remake... how silly of me! Anyway, I have finished it now, and [i]DAMN[/i] is everything tightened up. The writing has been tightened up, all the pseudoscience elements feel more relevant, suspense is more suspenseful, events are punchier, the graphics have been way upgraded, but honestly I think Alec Shea's soundtrack might be an even bigger upgrade than the graphics -- it is MERCILESSLY spot on. Some tracks are plain [b]terrifying.[/b] As for the overall quality, I might try to edit this into a better review later (if I ever get around to that), but suffice to say, I knew the general gist of it already, and yet the specifics (especially in their re-tightened form) grabbed me [i]again.[/i] Total obsession, spread over the course of about 1.5 days total. One minor gripe I have to point out is that while HASC's original puzzles may have been a bit much at times (I still remember struggling with the safe and "metagaming" the laser), this version removed actual puzzle-solving almost entirely, nerfing the "playable escape room" aspect into the ground. By itself this might be fine, but this _is_ a Zero Escape-like, and I think people coming from ZE will expect a bit more resistance than this. But don't let that discourage you -- the story (this time tightened up in terms of writing and MUCH better-presented) is the main attraction here, and this game will thrill you, chill you and scramble your brain real good. If you're a newcomer, welcome aboard. If you're here from the original version, this one's better. If you're here from Birth ME Code, you'll catch some [i]very[/i] interesting details, many of which the original version didn't have. If you're here from ZE... well... this particular entry in the franchise LOVES pretending that it's showing you a twist similar to something in ZE, only to introduce a "twist to a twist" that wildly changes the context. So... if you think something seems a bit too unoriginal... [i]think again.[/i] :) Don't know if I should go through BMEC again or jump straight into D4G, but either way, this thing is fantastic and 100% needs more love. I just finished and maybe am not super coherent, but the more good reviews, the merrier.

While I recommend this game it comes at big leniency for the small development team and the added recommendation to wait for a sale, as I can't in good conscience say that 20 bucks feel like the right price. Hopefully I haven't scared you off just yet then on to the actual review: The music, sounds, menu ui and especially the flowchart and cgs are very well done. The writing quality is consistently swinging betweem good and serviceable, tho I don't think that most of the characters will stick you, but the true ending is saved it for me. On to the greatest sin of the game tho. For a game build on the "death game" gimmick and clearly taking inspiration from the Zero Escape series (There is that mention for you in this review) you would think that the Escape rooms which are a central gimmick would be more interactable. The way it is tho, there are only really two puzzles in the game, with one of them getting autosolved by your partner if you mess up thrice and the rest are just you clicking the on screen prompts and getting narrated to without any sort experimentation. Lastly I did enjoy the dev commentary in the lexicon after beating the game. I am probably going to look into the rest of the soon to be triology.

Great game

Completely melted my brain with existential dread.

Train Subway + Death Game = Poggers!

Cool indie VN. Plays very much like the Zero Escape/Somnium Files games. Highly recommend checking these games out if you like that style of VN.