Adventure Gamers - Forums

Intense Degree - 21 February 2018 03:43 AM

Agree. Those characters stop the setting getting too depressing, but somehow still fit the dystopian feel.

Is the dystopian feel supposed to be implied by the first few scenes or is it something you already know about the game? Because coming into this game and knowing nothing about the setting or the story, I do not feel the game is dystopian at all in its first chapter.

Intense Degree - 22 February 2018 03:51 AM

All of that points me towards dystopia, at least my idea of a dystopia, but as Walas says, perhaps we just have different ideas of what Dystopian means and there’s certainly nothing wrong with that!

How does the game feel to you so far, if not dystopian?

I feel that it is similar or maybe slightly better to what it is today. My first assumption is that Newton is somewhere in the US, because everyone is speaking in an American accent. Where the blonde villain was standing is what I imagine a future neighborhood in NYC to look like, similar to today but with futuristic cars. The main character is unemployed for about 2 years but she gets housing, food and clothing which is better than what people who are unemployed today get. If I get unemployed today in the US, I get a certain percentage of my salary for 6 months and then nothing. I don’t get free health insurance, housing, nor food for that matter, so if I have no savings, I’ll end up homeless. So in a way, the benefits given to her by the government are pretty good.

The goo stuff is not very different to the Mcdonalds pink slime which people pay for, and it is free food given to her by the government, so I expect it not to be the highest quality. Mcdonalds just packages it nicer. I also wasn’t given the impression that this is the only available food for anyone to buy, just one of the choices. We do have a 3D Pizzar printer today: http://www.businessinsider.com/beehex-pizza-3d-printer-2017-3

And then they seem to recycle everything, like the clothes and the trays so that’s not a bad thing.

The trance and wetware looks like really neat technology, and it is the next evolution of virtual reality. Latha Sesame seems to love it.

Walas mentioned the emails, but those are frighteningly very similar to today’s. She got some guy trying to scam her, and then a malware attachment. Not very different from the emails I get

As far as her being held prisoner, I felt it was more like part of the plot, that someone is targeting her for some unknown reason rather than people are prisoners in their apartments.

I guess when I think dystopian, I think something like the Hunger Games or Ready Player One.

I have played this game when it came out (commercially) and I really find the first chapter to be a great example of good “Escape Room Puzzle” design.

Let me elaborate a little better:

I think that Escape Room puzzles are a very nice way to start an adventure game. Players become accustomed with the game mechanics - stating the obvious: being just a single room, you know that the solution has to be there somewhere - and, if properly designed, they can give them a taste characters and gameworld’s backstory.

In my opinion, Technobabylon lands this first Escape Room puzzle in a very clever way by giving you a “2-in-1 Escape Room” (by switching between the Trance and the real world) and filling both with stuff that gives you a feel of who Latha is and what kind of world we are visiting.

Having also deconstructed it puzzle by puzzle (spoilers everywhere in the link) I look forward to what you will post here as weeks go by

Finished chapter 2 and I am completely loving the game so far.

Here are some of my thoughts on chapter 2.
It is now starting to be clear how dystopian the world is:

- UV rays are pretty bad and people with risk of melanoma need to stay indoors in certain days.
- trance is pretty scary, with the risk of getting fatally mindjacked.
- Trees are a thing of the past and they are now bioengineered.
- Some kids are bioengineered to be walking bombs, without any regards to the health sideeffects it causes them. Geez, that’s like the next level of suicide bombing.
- Central feels like big brother, with too much centralized power and knowledge that is withheld from the field agents, and all the surveillance cameras. Also, seems like there is a lot of pressure to be connected to the trance, or become obsolete.

I am still not very clear where this game takes place.

I was obviously wrong, and it is not taking place in America. Regis mentions another continent and a view of the Indian Ocean, so are we talking about Australia perhaps? I still feel it is weird how everyone is speaking in an American accent.

I really loved the slight on:
“Free” to play games. Nothing like buying more credits to play rock-paper-scissors