Mezzanine

"Mezzanine" is a short but not completely uninteresting "Me too" homage to retro puzzle games like Myst, except you're at the end of the 1990s, when pastels ruled the world and electronics were plastic, see through and bulbous. Frankly I was expecting to be more disappointed than I am, they captured the look and feel pretty well. It's not without it's technical problems, of course. What do you do in the game? Like Myst and other puzzle games, you don't have free locomotion (back then, computers weren't powerful enough, now, there's no excuse and that's a problem in itself). So in the game, you click around to move bewteen 2D images of pre-rendered 3D scenes, clicking on various things to work your way through puzzles and obstacles. There's even a bit of 1990's desktop simulator stuff going on. Really, not so bad for free, I guess. The graphics in this game are passable, but could be better. And while it's vital for any game to have impressive visuals (gaming is a visual medium, after all), there's more to a game than just the graphics. To be worth a gamers time, the game must match top tier visuals with top tier gameplay, and that's not happening here. On the matter of pricing and value for gamers, most "free" games on Steam aren't really free. There's often nasty mobile app cash shops, or content locked behind DLC, or donations being requested, or any other number of shady pricing schemes that could mislead gamers, but in this case I'm glad to say this really does appear to be a fully free game. Nothing demonstrates a developers belief in themselves and their work than giving it away without any remuneration. This is a service to themselves, and the gaming industry, and should be applauded. Of course, just because something is free, doesn't necessarily mean it's valuable, or something you might want to spend your time on. Even though this is "free", it failed to appeal to the 120 million+ gamers on Steam. SteamDB showed the game peaked at only 4 concurrent players... this is a dismal public reception. This was so bad they couldn't even give it away. Bearing in mind that free games don't add +1 to your game collector count, should you bother adding this to your library and downloading it? This is a "maybe" experience... if you have a lot of free time on your hands and nothing else to do, why not? But for the purposes of a review, this isn't something I can say everyone must try. It's not quite there. Valve doesn't give us a "maybe" option in reviews, but if they did, that's what I'd choose for this.

I am ready to transcend to the PSYSphere; no more Gulch Syndrome for me! Thanks to my unlimited Chronex prescription. Thank you, Zentropy Corp, without you and PsyPal I don't know where I'd be. <3

Игра "Mezzanine" - это атмосферное и очень своеобразное приключение. Визуальный стиль, выполненный в пиксель-арте, одновременно минималистичен и захватывающе детален, создавая ощущение тревожности и отчуждения. Сюжет, подаваемый обрывками воспоминаний и загадочными встречами, оставляет после себя больше вопросов, чем ответов, что заставляет игрока размышлять над происходящим даже после завершения. Геймплей довольно прост - исследование мира и взаимодействие с немногочисленными объектами. Сложность заключается в интерпретации окружающей среды и осознании роли главного героя. Музыкальное сопровождение идеально дополняет визуальную составляющую, усиливая ощущение меланхолии и безысходности. "Mezzanine" - это не игра для тех, кто ищет прямолинейного повествования и динамичного экшена. Это интерактивный опыт, который требует терпения, внимания к деталям и готовности к интерпретации. Если вам нравятся игры, которые заставляют задуматься и оставляют после себя долгое послевкусие, "Mezzanine" определенно стоит вашего внимания. Она маленькая, но очень запоминающаяся.

the lore is absolutely nuts

This game captures the look and feel of the turn of the millennium quite well, especially once the player finds the mp3 player and starts the music. It is, however, difficult to recommend, as the save/load function is broken (SCRIPT ERROR: _load_game: Invalid get index 'wearing_helmet' (on base: 'Dictionary'), so each run has to be completed in one sitting. Navigation was difficult, as attempting to interact with some scenes would trigger movement and sometimes movement would lead to interaction, depending on where the scene was clicked. I found one of apparently several endings but would like to try again if the game is ever patched.

I've only obtained a couple of the endings, but this game plays fairly well on Steam Deck if you set mouse controls to the right touchpad. The story takes a jab at loony, new-age obsessed silicon valley CEOs and how their ideas for progressing humanity are rarely ethical. There's a lot of detail put into the environment; it really encourages you to keep looking.