Re: Alt frequencies
So, I've finished it. Here are my thoughts:
Spoiler
First, the positives. The concept is great. I have never seen something like that. I'm a huge fan of experimental games, so this was absolutely my thing. The story was good to, but I would have liked a bit more explanation of what this time loop actually does. What's the point of doing this, why did time progress anyway after the chapters and how can we leave the time loop in the end? This was all a bit to vague for my tastes.
The puzzles are really fun to figure out. Not very difficult, but it's cool to see something work and hear how the stations change their programs. But it's a bit sad that every single puzzle is clued so much. I felt they were a bit to easy.
The speakers were great. I'm from germany, so I played with german voices and replayed with english voices afterwards. As in most games, the english voices are better, but the german synchronisation is not far behind. Especially the talk moderator is absolutely fantastic in german.
Now the negatives: This game is wayyy to short. Five chapters long and then it's already over when you start to really get immersed into this world and care for the people. For my first playthrough, I needed about one hour and then, when you know what you're doing, you can finish it in about seven minutes or so.
Next, the choices. Or should I say the achievements that make you think you made a choice. You really can't influence the greater story at all. You can only influence the moderators a little bit. And this is done in one single chapter. In another chapter, you decide indirectly what the fate of the rmb's is. The rest of the chapters, you can't change the slightest bit. So, in this one chapter about the moderators, you decide whom to trust with your informations and that's it. One chapter later, this moderator will behave a bit differently and the ending broadcast of this moderator changes. That's it. This wouldn't bother me as much, wouldn't there be this ending. So, the normal reaction to the ending is the following: Oh shit, I didn't solve the game. This is the bad ending, and I'm happy to try again and get a different outcome. And then you try ... and try ... and try ... but there is nothing you can do. There was so much potential for a greater puzzle about whom to trust and how to send your informations to and change the outcome of the story. But no, there is nothing you can do. I'm not the "every story must have a happy ending" type, not at all, but this ending is so unbelievably anticlimactic I can't believe it. If we think about it, not sending any information to anybody should yield about the same outcome. This feels like they wanted to do more but then there was the deadline or the money went out or something and they simply had to stop midway through the game.
So, I've mixed feelings about this. Great concept, but flawed execution.
What do you think?
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