The Norwood Suite

It's weird in that delightful 00s games way where people were exploring 3D but weren't catering to established genres, and the narrative had the excitement of a 5 year old making up a story on the fly.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀•⠀•⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀♱⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀•⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⚜⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀•⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀♱⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀•⠀•⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀    𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝕹𝖔𝖗𝖜𝖔𝖔𝖉 𝕾𝖚𝖎𝖙𝖊 | ❤︎ ❤︎ ❤︎ 🖤🖤 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀•⠀•⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀♱⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀•⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⚜⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀•⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀♱⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀•⠀•⠀ This game was... interesting. I enjoyed every minute of it, but it is absolutely a weird game. I'm not sure how to put it into words but I think the sound design and music in this game is my favorite out of anything I have played. It felt very trippy at times and just scratched an itch in my brain. I'd give my interpretation of the games deeper meaning but I think for this one its more fun if you go in blind and then read the dev's thoughts afterward.

Yet another great surrealist adventure from Cosmo D. I think I have a decent grasp on the story, but I have to end up replaying it at some point because looking back, there were things set up that I just didn’t realize were connected to everything else at the time. Regardless, I enjoyed this one, and it gave me something to think about. The whole Off-Peak series is really just about music and how much it shapes this entire world, which I find fascinating, and I liked how it was explored here too. The story paints Norwood as this genius composer that everyone looks up to, then throughout the game, there are these tableaus that give hints that perhaps Norwood is not quite as he seems. This continues to the end of the game, where we see, after all, Norwood was actually just a facade. I like to interpret Norwood as someone who once was respected and had talent, but whose downfall came after stealing and taking credit for the work of the other talented musicians that he surrounded himself with. Maybe Norwood was self-conscious about his art, and being around other talented artists made him think his work wasn’t good anymore, causing him to become this husk/copy, no longer being able to creatively express himself. Or maybe Norwood was constructed as this idol to begin with, taking other people’s ideas and regurgitating them as his own, a false prophet that could reflect whatever its creators wanted. One small detail I liked was at the end of the game after building the Norwood disguise. You could go around talking to the other characters, and at first they would think you were actually Norwood himself. Seeing the other people's reactions to Norwood and how they idolized and solely talked about him and not the other creatives further shows that Norwood just stole the credit from the people he worked with, causing people to not know the real artists who created some of their favorite pieces of art. I also like how the game portrays the cycle continuing with Bogart, who is essentially Norwood’s modern replacement and another facade of a music idol. The little references to Off-Peak were also nice, and the music was fantasic as always. I'm looking forward to playing Tales from Off-Peak City next and hoping to see maybe some resolution as to what happened in the board meeting.

Play Off Peak and Tales from Off Peak. This one is seriously bugged and not worth buying until it is fixed. It's got great visuals and music as always, but it's unplayable, and I've got a pretty good machine. You have to run it in 32 bit mode in order to get it to start, and then it crashes within 10 minutes. When I reload the game, it didn't save and pops me back at the beginning. Really hoping they fix this!

Really wanted to play this, but it crashes on startup.

Так и не удалось заставить её работать. Игра либо крашится, либо превращается в кашу из ассетов, где вещи подгружаются или не подгружаются по принципу рандома. Перепробовал все бета-бранчи и найденные способы решения проблем — ничего не помогло. Хотя мило, что в версии «на случай, если игра крашится на старте» игра крашится по ходу геймплея, а в версии «на случай, если игра крашится по ходу геймплея» она крашится на старте. Получается, всё честно. Автор три года назад обещал всё перекомпилировать и отполишить, но либо до сих пор не успел, либо забил болт. Печально, это выглядело как что-то интересное.

Trippy as ♥♥♥♥ hotel exploration. Atmospheric music, cool art.