1000xResist

This games a bit of a walking simulator, so if you don't like games that use its media to tell a story, rather than games that have gamplay and a story, don't bother playing. Overall great game with amazing/atmospheric scenery, and beautiful music, takes around 12 hours to 100%. It was pretty fun to explore the world and get to know each character, and the game even rewards for doing this, by having side characters you could've skipped come back up in the story. I would give it a 9/10 expect a few things. 1. Lack of animation: Body language is widely considered the most important aspect in communication and emotion, and while I understand that animating every single scene might exceed the budget the devs had at the time, it's a bit disappointing playing going through scenes with high emotional-tension, when each character is stuck in a single pose reading their line. The scene in the steam trailer is more the exemption than the norm, where it is animated, and some scenes, like [Spoiler] when Watcher is reminiscing of her time with Fixer, feel like they could have had more impact if they were able to move. 2. Stiff/Odd posed characters: Similiar to the first point, a lot of times I would get into the story like in CH. 9 when your reading the 50's recordings, a somewhat serious moment, then I'd see one of the charcters posed like a youtube GMOD ragdoll and it'd break all immersion, all I'd be thinking about is why this character is posed so bizzarely and It break the tone that the story was trying to set. The same was also true for facial expressions of character's, where the VA would be spilling they're guts out, meanwhile the game model is blank-face staring at you, and while I still enjoyed the story it was definitely a lot harder to be as into it, when things like this would occur. 3. Time Mechanic: I guess it's my fault for thinking we would be using more of the back-and-forth time mechanic throughout the game. I really enjoyed CH.1 were you used this to enter classrooms that were blocked off by debris, by going to the past when it didn't exist, and vice-versa to talk to guards, who only exist in future. I thought that moving forward this was how I would be traversing the story, in a puzzle sort of way. Unfortunately this feature basically turns into a move forward button, as aside from keeping track of the ingame time for lore, you mostly just talk to all character's in scene then move 'forward' to talk to all character in next scene, without much need to ever go back, unless you missed a piece of dialogue. Because of this while this game is amazing considering that it's so price, I gotta give it a 8/10. Story, scenery, and music easily make up for all it's flaws, and eve nif you dont like non-gameplay games, I'd give it a try, definitly a purchase when it goes on sale.

[b]"- I cannot tell where I end, and you begin."[/b] I don't think it can be over stated how much of a narrative masterpiece this game is. Around halfway through, I felt compelled to pause my playthrough and learn more in depth about the HK protests, a topic which I previously only had a passing knowledge about. I suppose it's entirely possible to play through the game without knowing anything about how they transpired but a decent bit of subtext would probably be lost on you if you go about it that way. The story deals mainly with generational trauma and diaspora, and by extension with themes of holding on or letting go, staying or leaving, punishment or forgiveness. Initially you end up thinking almost every other character is rude or uptight but as the reality of their pasts and the bleak world they're left with begins to set in, you realize that the shell everyone has built around themselves has been purely out of necessity. There are no good or bad characters in conventional sense, everyone is flawed in one way or another and the game ultimately leaves the judgment up to you whether you consider those flaws are irredeemable or not. The dialogue for the most part is also very well written and you would read and hear many cryptic phrases which only later reveal themselves to be so heavily loaded. Strangely enough, despite the situation being rather dire for majority of the game, I actually found the dialogue to be occasionally pretty humorous as well - if only out of absurd ridiculousness. Voice acting is also excellent, which was surprising because I was expecting it to be serviceable at best but it ended up being far better than that. Although, in terms of dialogue in later parts of the game, I think the pacing suffers a little; but not to a point where it becomes a major inconvenience. All of that and an amazing soundtrack makes it an easy recommendation. The only gripes I have are gameplay related - the orchard being too convoluted to navigate being the main one. If the orchard was better designed, I honestly think it would've taken at least and hour less to finish the game (which is wild considering the game is only around 9-10 hours long.. so I spent more than 1/10th of my time just being lost). Apart from that, the zipping around you have to do during communions also got old very fast. The time manipulating elements were pretty cool though, and a few more clever tricks devs pulled during the gameplay sequences made me appreciate that I was going through this story as a video game and not as a purely visual or written experience. Anyway, I'm definitely looking forward to their next game.

As others have said, the story is absolutely amazing. But I can't help but feel like the video game medium does a disservice to it. Gameplay varies from non-existent to total dogwater. So much of this game is not fun to play. It can be tedious, frustrating, and frankly sometimes boring (especially when trying to navigate the horribly labyrinthian hub area). But the strong story and unique vibes push it forward. If you love strong narratives, it will be a great 8-hour experience. If you are looking for more game in your games, perhaps a pass.