[quote][i]This is largely a spoiler free review. I will have to cover some spoiler-like things vaguely since it’s integral to the review, but no results of the content will be revealed. It's accompanied by a similarly-styled spoiler-free video review that can be found [b][url=https://youtu.be/3BrH8UpnPEo]here[/url][/b].[/i][/quote]
[b]In summary, I don’t recommend THE GAME, and as a numerical score I’d give it a 4/10.[/b] The game has a good visual / audible art direction and the context to some of the gameplay elements are clever. This game is held back by a recent patch causing a fail-to-launch, a special ending adding nothing to the game, and an unintelligible skipping of gameplay sections on a second play-through.
[h2]Introduction[/h2]
I picked up THE GAME as I happened to catch it while scrolling through the New Releases section on Steam, and its name, header, and cost caused me to click in. The description on the Steam’s store page provoked my curiosity, even though the game says it’s [i]“...free for all audiences”[/i], yet costs 99 cents USD normally.
In this game you play as either Theo (male) or Jeanne (female), though you can change the names of the characters and the gender doesn’t seem to alter any elements of the game. Without much context, you come to in a mysterious realm where escaping comes at the cost of deciding which path to take, with the end of the path containing a “Free Ticket” to win “The Game”. Though, you lose the game pretty much as soon as you start playing, and that really isn’t clear why. The premise is introduced by an unnamed character who you won’t learn anything of value about, and then you’re teleported to where you’ll make your decision. Will you go to the left and take Juli’s path, full of turn-based combat and monsters, or will you take Lorena’s path, full of puzzles and social challenges?
At the end of either path, you’ll typically have to go through a ‘post-path’ section that will reiterate mechanics you experienced on either of the paths you had chosen. On a secondary play-through, this post-path gameplay section is skipped. Once you complete the post-path gameplay section, the game concludes. Playing the originally non-selected path in separate play-through provides a special conclusion, and completing both sections would probably take about 30 to 40 minutes.
That’s about all of the foundation needed, so let’s move onto what I liked about the game.
[h2]The Good[/h2]
For being a 99 cent game, I think the art direction is overall good. The art style of the characters (yourself, the NPCs, the enemies) are all appropriately grungy for the environment you’re experiencing. While some assets are stock, there’s a healthy amount of seemingly non-stock elements. When it comes to audio, the music is [i]largely[/i] appropriate with the exception of one very upbeat song in what I’d consider a low-energy environment. Since the game, and by relation, its sections, are short — the music doesn’t become overbearingly repetitive.
Another thing I enjoyed is the context of the gameplay elements; what the game lacks in gameplay, world building, or story composition does make up with some of the life-lessons that the developer wants you to be able to experience. The puzzles have some interesting meaning built into them, and the combat isn’t meant to be taken exactly at face value. There is some depth to these, and I thought that the writing for those elements was clever.
Those were the most enjoyable aspects of this game, so let’s move onto the things I liked a little less.
[h2]The Ungood[/h2]
It should be noted that the game does have some translation complications — nothing too distracting as you should be able to discern the intended sentence or phrase with context. I don’t actually hold this against developers, especially when they don’t seem to have English as their first language, but I still choose to mention it for anybody else who may care. There is only one instance (reflected in both paths) where a translation wasn’t performed on a yes/no response, but I was able to figure out which was what (”Sim” is “Yes”, “Não” is “No”).
Something I didn’t really enjoy that much was the special conclusion — completing both paths essentially gives you access to a bonus room where you can learn fun facts about the NPCs. With how interesting some of the NPCs, the world, or the situation you have found yourself in, I’m disappointed this wasn’t an opportunity to learn more about those aspects in lieu of finding out what someone’s favorite color was, or their full name. While some may find it thoughtful, I didn’t think that this content added anything to the game.
Next up, a patch was recently deployed that made it so I could no longer launch the game directly from Steam due to a missing executable. I’m not sure what this patch did since there were no patch notes and I played through both routes (starting with Lorena’s) again and didn’t feel like I experienced anything significant. You can still launch the game from [b]Browse Local Files[/b], but I fear that this game is no longer working for those who can’t solve the problem on their own.
Lastly, something I can’t understand is why some parts of the game are skipped on a subsequent play-through. As I said earlier, you’re taken to the post-path gameplay once the original path has been cleared — within this post-path gameplay you’re seemingly given some context or information about the [i]other character[/i] that you didn’t choose to pursue. When you attempt a second play-through and choose the other path, you skip the post-path gameplay section and instead are fast-forwarded to the ending, which steals the opportunity to learn about the other character. This is terribly unfortunate since I think Lorena actually is a really well-crafted character, but you lose out on some quintessential information when you try to complete Juli’s post-path section.
I could try and justify it as the developer wanting you to be committed to your decision and thus introduce a road-block, but this is somewhat easy, albeit cumbersome to overcome. The game forgets that you’ve played it at all once you complete both paths and get the special conclusion, so if you play the game a third time and play the path you didn’t select at first [i]again[/i], you’re able to experience the post-path gameplay that was skipped originally. So, if this was intentional, the roadblocks weren’t efficient at committing the player to their decision.
There’s also a chance I am totally misunderstanding what information is presented at the end, who it’s for, and what it’s about, but that’s how I understand it at this time.
[h2]The End[/h2]
All-in-all, I sort-of liked the game, but I didn’t really gain any takeaways from it. The lessons it wanted to teach were something I was already aware of so there was nothing new or exciting about what the games’ mission appears to be. I would be excited to see what else this developer makes in the future if they choose to gain more experience and grow as a video game developer.
[quote][i]If you’re into curator groups, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/41665876/]we have one of those[/url]. Did you like this written review? Check out the spoiler-free video review for visual and audio compliments to the review:[/i][/quote] https://youtu.be/3BrH8UpnPEo
