TR-49

[i] TR-49 [/i] is an incredible ride. It starts as a puzzle game as opaque as ink, and slowly opens up from there into a fantastic story about love and loss, obsession, philosophy, and the mechanics of what makes fiction and reality. You are in the basement of an old church, recataloging an old machine that processes books and could analyze the intent and thoughts of the author. But all the entries have been corrupted and mislabeled. Somewhere inside the machine is a book that must be found and destroyed, the fate of your current perceived reality on your shoulders. With fantastic voice acting, a haunting atmosphere, and the machinations of one eerie machine, [i] TR-49 [/i] has stolen my heart (and good sleep) over the last few days. As a Completionist, there is an achievable number of endings! Each one, while hidden as all puzzle games should be, was logical and rewarding, and I found I was able to get to each by taking a step back and assessing the problem fully. But despite getting every Steam achievement, I doubt I found every single data entry in the TR-49. A game that was made with love and care, well-designed to be complex and dense to the undedicated. I can't say it enough- HIGHLY RECOMMEND for any mystery fanatics.

In this game you use an ancient digital archiving system to connect titles, codes, authors, and log entries. You quickly become familiar with the system and if you're good at memorizing you will soon know most of the codes and such by heart, which makes the experience even more immersive than it already is. It reminded me of using the computer in the Roottrees, it's super satisfying discovering the correct codes and keywords and finding connections between stories while learning about the lives of the authors. I'd say there's two plots in this game, the first is shown through unraveling the archived materials and learning about schools of thought and the authors belonging to them all while reading log entries created by the "main characters" of the game, telling you about their lives and events in the outside world. The second is told through a super annoying and completely useless dialogue that I genuinely wanted to murder immediately. Everything to do with the first plot is GREAT - super interesting and immersive and makes the game well worth playing. Just be warned that when the game ends you will have no idea what the characters are talking about lol, and also the UI is impossible to use (ignore the "ABC"-button, it sucks.) All in all, 5hrs worth of gameplay for £5 is pretty solid, but I'd probably wait for it to be discounted if I were you.

pretty cool puzzle game, i had to look up a guide on how to get the last achievement but it was still a cool game