Terranova

This game brought me back to my hutch-style, faux-wooden-desk from high school where I would play AMVs and chat with friends and randos alike about life, school, and animoo. I totally dig the aesthetic of this game, from the sounds, the bubbly, Fisher-Price looking Windows XP layout, to the very real feeling of excitement/anxiousness I got when chatting with friends on AIM. The characters definitely feel like a piece of my childhood and I think anyone who longs for the that early 2000s-Internet-feel or just wants a taste of what it was like back in the day should check out this game.

What a game. If you remember roleplaying on LJ and chatting with your friends on AIM then this game will definitely kick up some nostalgia. If you [i]don't[/i] remember those things, then this game still has [i]two[/i] very compelling parallel stories going on: The main story with the "real world" characters and the story that they're roleplaying, which is fully fleshed-out. If you enjoy good stories, then you'll double-enjoy this game. :)

highly recommended to anyone who has ever had a blog, internet friends or roleplayed online in the earlier days of the net, terranova will definitely resonate with you!! please try this out if you have an itch for nostalgia and patience for reading lots of self-indulgent creative writing ((bonus points for original characters and BL enjoyers, you'll feel right at home here)) re: my playtime... i spent 6 hours playing solitaire (i know lol) but the story was in fact a beefy whole 10 hours and i can't wait to dive back in for the other endings; thank you to the devs for letting me relive my own bittersweet teenage years through this masterpiece, i enjoyed every single moment of the experience.

Please play this game

Writing this immediately after finishing the game... wow. I feel like i cant properly use words to talk about it, it was an experience, honestly more so one than probably any other game ive ever played. It felt really real--like i was a teenager on a chat form in the early 2000's in an unfamiliar environment, yet somewhere it also felt like I existed. Basically i just mean it felt real, like the characters were real--like we were friends staying up all night to talk to eachother. I felt REAL empathy for these characters, and their fates actually made me cry. I literally said out loud while playing this game "Nooo fictional character please dont do thiss ;-;" haha. I dont usually pick up or enjoy games that only have 10 hours or so of value but this game really felt like longer. Not quite but almost as if i was aging with the characters, even though i played this in the span of about 2 days. It just felt very fufilling and it was definitely worth the money i spent. Ill definitely pick it up again someday. I have so much more to say but i'll just leave this here. I wish there were more games like Terranova, and its really a shame this is only the 26nd review of the game because it deserves to be known. I hope I convince someone to buy it, because really it is such a wonderful game. (Also if anyone has any suggestions of social/roleplaying games anything like this one, lmk)

Terranova is a charming desktop simulator, where you play an interactive narrative through the UI of a computer desktop. Set in the early 2000s, this game is very much a tribute to the roleplaying scene of Livejournal. When two IRL friends start an online roleplaying community on LimeJournal, they are joined by two additional online RP buddies. As the year progresses, both in and out of character, friendships will bloom...as will rivalries, drama, and of course romance (this is the RP scene of the early aughts after all!). The writing is definitely the centerpiece of the game, as the narrative, and all character development, is done through IMs and LJ posts. All the characters are nuanced and believable, as is the drama, which is in turns funny, heart-warming, frustrating, and gut-wrenching. The creators truly do a fantastic job recreating the joys and sorrows of the high school online experience from this time period. While the roleplaying isn't fully open-ended, the choices you make effect your ending, so take care to save at key moments. You will definitely want to get the good ending ;).

probably the best game i've played in years. this was an incredibly real experience, one i could personally relate to quite a lot, actually. it reminded me to go talk to my online friends and make sure they know they're appreciated, heh. :) and it's really not that long for such a lore-driven game! i'm pretty sure i got the good ending first time around. i'll definitely be playing through to get the "bad" ones, too. well worth the money imho.

Just play it. You like queer stories? Were/are you highly involved in fandom? Do you get nostalgic over trying to hold your mentally ill friend group together? Play it. Play it, play it play it. There's solitaire, if that sweetens the deal. 10/10 made me tear up and my gay little heart melt into a puddle of goop.

this game was insane to play. there are no words to describe the deep, raw emotions it made me feel. it really hit wayyyyy closer to home than i ever could've expected it to, like a mirror from my own childhood. i really can't say anything but. wow.

I have only gotten a little bit into this game, but it is already KILLING ME with how good it is. I was there in the trenches back in the aughts on "limejournal", and this rings SO REAL for me. The late night first time drunk instant messenger chats and RPs. The OOC comments in the double parentheses. It's legit got me wondering if anyone who worked on this game was someone I used to play with on Compound or...was it called Nyx? Anyway so far the storytelling here is great, and I appreciate how much verisimilitude they include. I can be having 2 separate chats while also updating my blog and also playing Solitaire. Perfect game.