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If I could turn back time...

Clock of Atonement is one of the more unique games I have ever played. Even after completing it I am not entirely sure how to describe it. I suppose it superficially resembles a puzzle game, but it really plays more like an Adventure game, and even that doesn’t really help in describing it.

The premise of the game casts you as a stalker. He has just killed the girl he loved, and he is overwhelmed with feelings of fear and guilt. A mysterious man offers him a chance to “atone,” giving him a magical clock that will allow him to rewind time and return to the moment he killed her. Can he prevent the murder, or will his own nature prevent him from stopping himself? Can he truly come to terms with what he has done?

Since this is an extremely short game I am not going to bother with any sort of format.

There are two main mechanics to the game, the first being the titular clock. You may use the clock at any time to advance forward through time, from one scene to the next, to stop time and try to influence events, or to go back a step if things didn’t go your way. Your character is powerless to influence either his past self or his would be victim. However, he can influence the environment in a few ways to change the outcome of the confrontation. This could range from making a loud sound to distract the characters, turning off the lights, or opening doors. Most changes do nothing to change the ultimate outcome and the girl will still die. The key is to discover if any sequence of events will lead to a different outcome.

This is a very novel and interesting approach to the idea of influencing time, but there are a few problems to it. There is only a very small number of environmental objects you can influence, most of which can only be interacted with at very specific times. Secondly, once you interact with something the outcome is out of your hands, and the characters will often act in a manner that makes what you did feel pointless. On one hand, this can create quite a bit of tension since you don’t know if what you did will help or not. But at times it feels very arbitrary, as if only a specific sequence of events will do anything without any real logic behind it.

Here, the glowing green objects indicate what the player can interact with.



Perhaps more interesting than the actual mechanics is the plight of the protagonist. The game pulls off the “mind of a killer” angle fairly competently, and the protagonist finds he is constantly at odds with his past self. No matter what he does, it seems his own darker nature always will get the better of him. He is clearly a disturbed and pathetic individual, but also clearly contrite, and he managed to come off as fairly sympathetic despite being obviously deranged. I think this is likely because the creator did not try to over-explain things. We don’t know where this man came from or what drove him to such desperate ends, we can see from his actions that he is unhinged without us needing to be told anything, and we know that he clearly feels bad about what he has done and wants to try to make things right. Can his love overcome his darkness? Only time will tell.

The game features no musical track, just an ambient sound of a clock ticking in the background. The game instead relies on sound to create atmosphere and tension, and in general succeeds very well, probably far more effectively than had some random musical track been included.

Overall 3.5/5
I feel like this was an incredibly intriguing premise for a game, and while I think it is still good on its own, I can’t help but feel that it could have been taken further to create something much better. The limited amount of interactivity means there are only so many ways you can influence the game world, and after a while it can start to feel repetitive as you are forced to redo a lot of actions. Still, it is a very unique game that is short enough that anyone can play through it if they have a few minutes, so there’s really no excuse not to try it for yourself!

Posts

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LouisCyphre
can't make a bad game if you don't finish any games
4523
what yo ugavet his 3 1/2/5 stars but 2 arms unly got 2/stars I dont' see any swearin gthis game isn ot relistic enouf
Solitayre
Circumstance penalty for being the bard.
18257
I wasn't planning on changing it?..
He means your next reviews.
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