Land of Screens

+ Polished graphics, if not necessarily my personal favourite style + Generally a good message and solid writing - Lifeless soundtrack, which is especially disappointing when one chapter takes place at a concert Land of Screens is a cute, if sometimes heavy-handed story about disconnecting from your device once in a while to reconnect with life. While the messaging is fairly relentless, it does at least leave a little room for nuance—the main character gets gently scolded, for instance, for looking down on someone for enjoying selfies when self-portraiture has a long history in art, and while watching a sports game is dismissed as not being a good way to bond with family, in other instances we see TV shows, online communities and media being something that brings new friends together. It helps that the dialogue between the characters is grounded, even if there are flairs of exaggeration for effect, and that the game doesn't overstay its welcome. At around an hour and a half to perhaps two of playtime, if you solve its light puzzle elements quickly, this is a good choice for a bite-sized adventure if you're already willing to buy into its messaging around screentime and feel like you'd benefit from your own reminder that it's okay to look away from your notifications.

You know, I was raised by games like Dead Space. lost hundreds of hours to FTL, and mentally declared VNs to "not be my thing." AND YET. This two-hour, walking & talking narrative game about gently reminding people to disconnect for a bit, got me to write my first proper Steam review. I love this game; its short and sweet in the best way, with a lovely vector shaped art style. Its modern and frequently charming dialogue knows how to pace itself (if you know what I mean, I'm so sorry). Its less than the price of a movie rental, I absolutely recommend this game if you want a movie-length, easy-to-digest piece of art. :)

I loved the art style in this game but, honestly, the characters were not very relatable and the story felt more like a morality play than an actual game. Honestly, the situations felt plastic and unrealistic, and when you combine it with the constant "don't you see how everyone is on their phones, even when it's deeply inappropriate to be on your phone", it just didn't work for me narratively. I'd love to see more games in this visual style. Overall, it was nice to be able to finish it in an afternoon, though.

In all honesty, this game had been rotting away on my wishlist for a long time (unfortunately, I can't remember when I put it on that list now). Going into the game for the first time, I didn't think too much about the name of the game itself—I only knew some of the previews I'd seen on Steam. I loved the art style; it kind of reminded me of Night in the Woods. Actually, a lot of this game was like Night in the Woods; through vibes, art style, and all that cozy, warm, small-town talk that this exuded was fantastic. Growing up as a small-town boy myself—practically living in the trees—then moving away from that into a routine and beige suburbia "paradise" was like a part of me was hollowed out. To be entirely straightforward, that's pretty much the entire setup for this game. Filling holes in your persona using social media engagement—either by passively consuming or actively warring against opinions outside your own—as a stopgap for healthy and genuine human interaction only leaves bigger holes and less time for yourself and others. Kinda ironic coming from someone taking their own time writing a review online, but knowing that the more reviews a game has here, the more eyes will pick this game up and learn the same lessons. Definitely not the whole "abstinence only" approach in their messaging, more along the lines of "everything good in moderation" and "in scary times, look for the helpers."

This is a short and simple but well written narrative-focused point-and-click game. It's story is about a girl dealing with a recent break up that ends up by accident noticing that sometimes disconnecting yourself from the internet can lead you to having more meaningful connections to those around you in real life. It is not as preachy as it looks at a first glance and I definitely recommend this to anyone that's looking for a relaxing/wholesome experience.

Random Scuffed Games #417 https://twitch.tv/DitoMido Aktuelle Spielequeue: https://rsg.ditomido.de Bisherige Reviews Archiv: https://rsg.ditomido.de/archive Vorgeschlagen von: Karichan86 Land of Screens ist ein super schön illustriertes und animiertes Visual Novel in welchem wir primär mit Dingen interagieren und mit NPCs sprechen. Wir haben gerade eine Trennung hinter uns und möchten einfach nur echten sozialen Kontakt, was aber in unserer heutigen Zeit in diesem Spiegelbild der Gesellschaft wirklich schwer zu fallen scheint, weil überall der Fokus auf Social Media, Unterhaltungsmedien und selbstdarstellung liegt. Das Stichwort in diesem Spiel lauten: sich einsam unter vielen fühlen. Sehr sozialkritisch, aber vermutlich für menschen die ähnliches gerade durchmachen ein ästhetischer trost, dass man damit nicht alleine ist und noch hoffen darf. Auch wenn man in dem selben Moment ja sogar selbst vor dem Bildschirm sitzt und medien konsumiert. Rating: Dito: 4.5/5 Chat: 4/5 Gesamt: 4.25/5

This game's theme is mainly about putting your phone away and initiating face to face conversation, in a world where the people are addicted to digital devices and social media. The game follows our character Holland, who just had a breakup with her BF, and the news spread on social media, which makes her feel super anxious because of the comments. She then decides on the spot not to see her phone anymore, and from there the story progress, where Holland takes an effort to connect with people physically and mostly help people around her, by mostly getting them NOT to use their phones and such. The Good - The theme is good and gives out a positive message, sometimes we get too obsessed with our devices or social media that we forget what's important or how to talk with people. I like the message that Cody (her BFF) said that in life, especially when you're already a working adult, you have to MAKE time to see friends/ family, otherwise there will never be a time available because we're always busy with something (she said something along those lines anyway XD ) - The art style is super cute and colorful, very pleasing to look at. - Linear storyline, "easy puzzles", and controls are point and click - Family-friendly, no swearing or cursing in this game - Price is affordable, cheap if you can get it on sale The Not-so Good but OK - Game is short, can finish within 1.5-2 hours - The dialogues are sometimes not very engaging, like feels lifeless for some of the characters, but overall it was pretty ok for most of the characters [spoiler]for example, i feel Holland's mom especially seems a bit limp in response, especially considering she was super worried about her child, like there could have added exclamation marks to add emphasis but the mom mostly has full stops in her sentence hahaa, BUT maybe that's just me; Cody has life in her dialogues though, like from the way she talks you can tell she's the life of the party, and that she's pretty positive[/spoiler] - No replayability value, you get 1 ending, which was OK in my opinion. To summarize, good short story-game with a positive message, but not much in terms of replayability. Maybe if you wanna watch a movie but don't have anything in mind, you can play this game instead. 7.5/10

jogo curtinho sobre o uso excessivo de celulares hoje em dia, achei a narrativa legal sem forçar muito por isso gostei c:

Wholesome little narrative game about disconnecting from screens and social media. Lovely art style and music, nice writing. It felt like playing through a short story. I recommend it!

Eh, good enough for what it is, but nothing I'd ever revisit.