
USSR, 1986. A girl goes missing in the closed city of Vorkuta-5, yet not a soul seems to be concerned. Uncover the mystery behind her disappearance and transmit your signal to the universe.
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USSR, 1986. When Ira Grachevskaya goes missing in the closed city of Vorkuta-5, not a soul seems to be concerned – except for the quiet outcast Asya Shubina, that is. Uncover the mystery behind Ira’s disappearance, transmit your radio signal to the universe and learn why a bird flies past the window.
Meet the cast.

A problem child and a truant, Ira doesn't have the best reputation. Her standoffish demeanor makes her difficult to talk to, especially for someone as meek as you. There is a rumour she's been meeting with an older man.

Marina's carefree personality makes her quite popular among her classmates. Adults don't seem to like her very much, probably due to poor grades. Despite the girl's outgoing nature, her worldview is rather cynical.

A boy with an unpleasant sense of humour. Likes picking on people weaker than him, namely you. His family has been a little out of it the past few weeks.

You. Not worth writing about.
Z.A.T.O. is a linear visual novel with roughly 7-8 hours of playtime. There are no choices. The ending is predetermined. Sit back and enjoy your time in a town that doesn't exist.
DISCLAIMER: the game contains strong language, loud noises and flickering images.
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Languages: English
Engagement
Reviews
Themes across 171 recent reviews and how positive each mention is. A keyword signal, not full sentiment analysis.
Reviews
it really was love
Beautiful game. Insane this is free. I will be buying it for some sum of money on itch.io to support the creator. If you like things such as Paprika, NieR, OneShot, etc. you'll definitely enjoy this.
Interesting little visual novel. I was not expecting an emotional or deep story since it's free, but boy was I wrong. A good filler between games if you're into VNs and have ~5 hours to spare.
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Concurrent players on Steam, sampled daily since tracking started.
Hours played at review time, across 171 reviews with recorded playtime.
positive critical· bar length = how often the theme comes up
this game sat collecting dust in my downloads until i decided to play it, and i definitely regret not playing it sooner although the writing isn't perfect, in its entirety i enjoyed reading/playing through this. the story is very layered, and confusing to grasp at times, but thats what i like about it. its also free, which is very cool for the content it provides im not one to write reviews or read visual novels, but this story was far too good to not voice my love for it
我爱这个游戏。我爱这个游戏。我爱这个游戏。
holy mother of peak
Haven't finished the whole game yet, but I LOVE the story and the characters, the atmosphere and vibe of this game is incredible. I highly recommend playing this masterpiece it treats topics like mental health and more...
I love Z.A.T.O and everything in it.
一款带着浓浓后朋味的视觉小说,字里行间都透露着斯拉夫文学的伤感与末世感。小说总体流程不是很长,大约5小时左右,适合一次性阅读完所有剧情。小说的人物塑造与内心描写可谓出神入化,你能很清晰的体会到asya那种回避型依恋人格所特有的“拧巴”,但又同时能体会到她对于自己平常生活的热爱。总而言之,这是一款质量上乘的视觉小说,非常值得一试
总的来说是一部优秀的氛围作。那些精准复现出前苏联阴郁和哀伤的环境描写,软糯又带点梦核气息的美术,非常细腻且带点疯言疯语式的语言质感以及藏匿在下面的情感洪流,再加上与文字美术严丝缝合的音乐,这些元素如同做乘法般地结合在一起,令人着迷。 说是氛围作是因为本作的氛围着实优秀,但同样的,剧情方面多多少少还是差一口气,尤其是第三章的仓促潦草的剧情走向让我很不满意,那种强烈的突兀感几乎缠绕着最后一整章——或许是铺垫不够,又或许这个故事本就不该通往那样的终点。 故事的包装很精美,上个世纪八十年代的苏联,萧条寥落的冬天,以代号命名的小镇,然后是少女邂逅少女,少女寻找少女的故事。 故事本身想表达的主题也毫无疑问是美丽的,大概是“世界不理会我,那我存在宇世界上的意义是什么啊”之类的,而作者给出的答案就是标题“我爱这个世界以及其中的一切”这句话,像一首诗的标题写得比诗本身还漂亮。你能感觉出说出这句话需要多大的力量——那不像顿悟,更像是溺毙前吐出的最后一个气泡。 可它没有让你看到这口气是怎么喘过来的。 我想第三章的问题就出在这。这篇作品提出了个好问题,作者也给出了结论,但它没有将得出这个结论的过程写得很扎实。当叙事需要真正回答“不被世界回应的人改怎么处理时”,游戏便开始用更密集更漂亮的话语来覆盖这个空洞。 研究所的出现,超自然力量,世界规则和世界意志——都像是为了快速抵达“我爱这个世界”这个终点而架设的桥梁。为了达到这个终点,前两章精心塑造的j角色仿佛也被一并舍弃了,阿莎雅苦苦寻找的伊拉最后也只是让主角阿莎雅了解到这个世界真相的钥匙。就像你看到这么多特色鲜明的人物因为一场所谓的世界意志的自我纠正行动而集体失忆,最后集体消失后的万般无奈。依照前两章搭建起来的舞台与人物,原本是可以延展出更多东西的。 好在作者在最后还是回归到了个人微观叙事层面,我很喜欢阿莎雅在末日来临那天的凌晨写下填满日记本的段落,它避开了那些生硬的设定,回到了阿莎雅作为一个人的原点,只有那些最原始的情感——感激、愧疚,不舍、悲伤。 不得不说作者很擅长用回环往复般的语言来表达出那些难以描述的感受,所以我很认同这部作品真正的长项,始终落在节奏、情绪的表达与语言的质感上,而不是故事架构或叙事结构上。我所表达的也正是这个观点,这大概也是为什么,我会反复咀嚼某些片段,却很少愿意把整个故事从头到尾再读一遍。
Audience
Estimated from the language of this game's reviews — a proxy for where players are, not official Steam demographics.