Subsurface Circular

Intriguing story, good dialogue writing (no voiceover), interesting setting. Takes 2 - 3 hours to finish, recommended in one playsession. (It's helpful, but not mandatory to know a little about "Thomas was alone") https://store.steampowered.com/app/220780/Thomas_Was_Alone/

A story-driven sci-fi mistery that leans on philosophical takes on the robot-human relationship. Its minimalist loop (conversations, branching dialogue options, puzzle-like interrogation) makes for an intriguing premise, yet the execution falls short: the detective framing often feels perfunctory, the experience is linear, and player choices rerely alter outcomes in any meaningful way, making the sense of agency more illusion than substance. Set in the Thomas Was Alone universe (and developed by the team behind Volume), it delivers competent, sometimes sharp writing, but never quite reaches the emotional heights of Thomas Was Alone; the ending in particular feels rushed and under-contextualized. Best enjoyed in a single sitting, it is a conceptually strong, well-crafted short that ultimately puts idea above execution, and it is outclassed by other narrative-driven games such as Oxenfree in terms of emotional payoff and narrative scope. 7 / 10

It was a good read.

It's a pretty good reading. Ending is okayish. Feels like a short story or a pilot for TV series set in one location. Somehow it's quite calm and soothing to just ride metro. Very small text on steam deck ;/

Subsurface circular is a short text based investigation story. The story will be held up by occasional slight puzzle elements, which must be figured out to continue with the events. If you get lost a bit, a question mark icon can be accessed with a hint of the solution. The theme of the game is about an android workforce in the future. It starts as a simple detective story, but manages to build towards a high stakes consequence. The themes in the game feel more relevant almost ten years after the game release, with a chance for robotic workforce to appear. A full playthrough was a bit less than 3 hours for me. Playing through the developer comment mode (New game + developer comments checkbox) added a bit more time to that. You will gain access to a new android with that, and can read about various development related topics. There is also an art gallery, with various asset development phases. The game has a save on exit approach. I only exited after the beginning of a new chapter, but supposedly it works at any point outside of a dialogue. Chapters can be replayed from the main menu, though there isn’t much point in that other than to unlock a few more achievements. The game would have been ok even with a low poly approach. To their credit, the developers made detailed 3D assets for the game, together with some animations, to increase the immersion. There is little to no background music in the game. Mostly you will be listening to the transition noises of the metro car. The closest thing to a background music is the music seeping from the listener (i.e. headphones) android. The game has no voice acting, by choice. Though, if it would be developed in 2026, they surely could have used some android AI voices for the various jobs. That would have been perfectly game appropriate, even if it sounded a bit artificial. The game was stable, it didn’t crash for me.

Usually, almost all visual novels and even some text-based RPGs (yes, Disco Elysium, I am talking about you) are self-indulgent endless streams of yapping and flapping. They get boring and tiresome practice in the author's graphomania way before they reach the end. Subsurface Circular is different, and that's why it's good. It is focused, it has one straight cohesive narrative, and it doesn't indulge itself in an endless stream of words. If you ever wanted to try the visual novel genre but are too afraid of wasting your time on useless word-jerking, you should try Subsurface Circular.

[h2]Great Short Detective Story[/h2] Great game with some charm and mystery. Subsurface Circular is a point and click or text based investigation game with some puzzles thrown in. The story is interesting but quite short. The robots are charming and the metro well it's a metro. This is definitely a one time play but it's worth it! Basically the same length as a movie. [h2]7/10[/h2] [h3][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45905648-Gork%2527s-Game-Grind/]Check out my curated list of games[/url][/h3]

It's short, it's fine, pretty linear in all honesty.

Perfect 1 session text based game.

The story and writing of the game is not terrible; I did enjoy the conversations with the various robot characters. The game's story does present some interesting ideas. My issue with the game is that your choices (despite the game implying it) do not seem to matter much. You are ultimately on a one track path. There's no real ending, you simply cut to black. It feels a bit disappointing. I was expecting more of a "pick your own adventure" type of thing with meaningful consequences and endings; this game is not that.