Obreno: Chapter One

Obreno: Chapter is not a game, it's not even an e-book ("Visual novel" is another term that writers use when trying to disguise an e-book as a game) that's been launched on Steam as a game, despite not being one. This is an advertisement/free sample for another e-book series, presumably because it's cheaper to pony up $100 USD to dump an advertisment on Steam as if it was a game rather than pay Valve to get some advertising space on the store page. As a visual/interactive novel, this doesn't feature any notable gameplay, it's just a lot of clicking through badly written dialogue that would never have been accepted or published in print, which presents the question, "How did something this badly written end up on Steam?". When someone hoping to become an author is unable to get published in print, they spend $100 and dump their high school fan-fiction onto Steam, under the guise of a game. This e-book has a mild, badly done Sci-Fi theme. There's some tolerable art to go along with it, but tolerable is perhaps a little generous. Of course, the launch of this advertisement was a dismal failure as it seems the remainder of the book was abandoned. I guess we shouldn't expect too much from developers who can't tell the difference from books and games. Visual novels/e-books are tedious at best... imagine the best novel you ever read, be that Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy or 2001: A Space Odyssey or Twilight (if you have terrible taste in literature), but then translate that to a format where the words dribble out and you have to click your mouse every time you wanted to read the next sentence, instead of just turning the pages. You'd think it was garbage. Now imagine that experience, but with much worse writing (because if these guys could write professionally, they'd be published authors and this would be on shelves in bookstores, and they wouldn't have to pay Valve $100 to self-publish this on Steam), and you have your average Steam e-book. Here's the instructions for putting a demo up on Steam, to demonstrate that there is a correct process for this, which hasn't been followed here: https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/application/demos While it might seem like an inocuous mistake, publishing demos and advertisements as if they are full games is misleading and in some ways harmful. This advertisement is taking up marketing space and visibility that would be better made available to a developer that's done the right thing and created a full game. Instead, that visibility is given over to a demo/advert that's been published incorrectly and is polluting the marketplace. It's unclear if this mistake was made through incompetence or a deliberate intent to mislead gamers, but at the end of the day, I can only recommend full, correctly published games to gamers. Because this is just a demo, and because e-books aren't games, I can't recommend this to gamers. I didn't pay thousands building a gaming rig to pretend it's a Kindle.

I actually agree with everything that was said in the previous two reviews, even though one was positive and one negative. Because whether you like this will largely depend on whether you're interested in reading large sections of text that want you to ponder philosophical issues. If yes, then I think this is a very interesting and unique game/book. The first part is quite a demanding read as there's a lot of information and few decisions (which I guess makes sense as it's set in memories so can't be changed). The galactic civilisation it describes is interesting though, particularly as it's seen through the eyes of a relatable regular guy. Then the second part feels much lighter and gets much more interactive. But overall it might be better to think of it as a new twist on a book rather than a game with lots of text. Definitely recommended, if it sounds like your kind of thing. But not if not.

It's a shame that we may not see another light of this game. It's not the first time I've seen this happen, but it still hurts whenever devs go radio silent and discontinue their game without an explanation. I could only spectate what happened to this project, but it's still not gonna help fill in the void that was left here, as I could see the potential. Mind you, I have seen this happen a few times recently, so I'm feeling pessimistic, but who knows what could happen. Even in its incomplete state, it remains a worthwhile experiment to get into, especially if you find the question posed here of 'Should we be advancing technology as much as possible even if it eventually costs us our humanity?' This game is very sci-fi heavy, set far in the future where many Earth-like planets are colonised by humans. Furthermore, fast space travel exists, there's also interesting building architecture, people with advanced prosthetics and AI drones doing more of the manual work. All things seem good and dandy, but the main premise of storytelling is that humans should transfer their brain consciousness to a machine to become particularly immortal. If the question posed here interests you, maybe this game is just for you. It plays like a limited first-person choose-your-decision game where you go through scene to scene, mostly reading and something scrolling up or down in a certain location to look around and interact with things to get some input or to go to. It's a pretty aesthetic game, subjectively speaking. There are some visually appealing animated segments and some cool design decisions with the way the world is presented. Like I said, try it if it interests you or you're a big sci-fi guru and you don't mind reading a lot.

Obreno: Chapter One's world felt nostalgic; I've visited its world before, perhaps in a dream, a book, another game, or some assemblage of them all, but certainly before. After giving it more thought, I suppose it felt familiar because of its postmodern utilization of narrative chronology and inner-monologue. The opening paragraphs, especially, felt reminiscent of Julio Cortazar's writing in his short story "Blow Up." There's a distinct, colourful, embellishment with quotation marks. I like that. Lines are intentionally blurred between Obreno's fabricated unrealities and Albin's authentic one: a kind of interplay between an exacting and rational reality and a surrealist and metaphysical one. And the art style, that too reminded me of something else - Heaven's Vault, I think. Overall, I quite enjoyed it. There were grammatical mistakes and bits of dialogue that lacked coherence, but it was still beautifully written. I'm hopeful for the next chapter.

Etkileşimli bir roman. Uzak gelecekte, kayıp bir kardeşin aranması, ilerlemenin sınırlarına ulaşmış olabilecek galaksiler arası bir medeniyette bir yolculuğa yol açar.

I am greatly enjoying this game. It feels very unique and experimental. It is well written and the artwork is great. A small gripe is that the save game system has checkpoints in the story, and does not go to the exact place you left off on. Otherwise, it is excellent so far. Ok, so I finished the game/story. It was short but that is to be expected in a free game. Despite this, it looks like a labor of love and inspired. It was intriguing, and I really hope the developers come back to it with a sequel. It looks like they had a lot more in mind for the story. The mystery of the red clouds and what happened to Obreno are something I would like to find out.

Happy new year! - Feliz año nuevo! ╗╔╗─────────╔═╦╗─────╔═╦╗★✫★✫★✫★✫★ ║╚╝╠═╗╔═╦═╦╦╗║║║╠═╦╦╦╗╚╗║╠═╦═╗╔╦╗★✫★ ║╔╗║╬╚╣╬║╬║║║║║║║╩╣║║║╔╩╗║╩╣╬╚╣╔╝★✫★ ╚╝╚╩══╣╔╣╔╬╗║╚╩═╩═╩══╝╚══╩═╩══╩╝¸¸★✫★ ──────╚╝╚╝╚═╝★✫★✫★✫★•• 2021 ••✫★✫★✫

Sound: 6 Graphics: 5 Story: 6 Gameplay: 4 Commands: 4 Fun: 3 Time to load / lag: 8 Bugs / Problems: 9 Final (my score, my rules - these is not math, punk) - 3