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A game's painful rough sketch

  • calunio
  • 01/31/2014 10:16 PM
  • 1133 views
Ghost Suburb Zero is an adventure game by Moga/CARRIONBLUE. I decided to review it as part of RMN's Reviewrim event, in which I set myself on a quest to review ALL of Moga's games.

This is the 5th Moga game I play, and by now I think I'm starting to "get" what's behind these very odd pieces. While a game like Halo's Mixtape can be extremely charming, Ghost Suburb Zero can be such an unpleasant experience that it makes me wonder how much of it is intentional. Well, I won't be the one to say that games should have nothing unpleasant about them, especially when talking about horror games, but a game can be unpleasant, even annoying, but at the same time engaging. I think GS0 falls a little short on the engaging factor, and taking the version I played, it has too many serious problems to succeed as a game. I'll try to say what I thought was good about it, what I thought wasn't good, and how it can be improved to make for a better gaming experience.

First of all...
What Ghost Suburb Zero is
It is a game with barely any text in which you have to leave a mazey-like place within a limited time frame. There are really no instructions, you just walk from one place to another until things start to make a little sense. They don't make much sense, but at least you get to understand that you need to get someplace. There are a few DBS battles, some item fetching, keys, and a few instakill traps. Gameplay is nothing elaborate, just enough to put you into the game and its atmosphere.
I feel this game was heavily inspired by Yume Nikki, as in the gamescape is very dreamish, a bit nonsensical, and the identity of the setting itself is left to interpretation.

The good aka scary in a good way
This game's atmosphere is really amazing. Nice crude graphics, great sounds and soundtrack (thought neither graphics or sound vary much). Having the song pitch change as the time progresses was a nice touch (though I only noticed it by opening the game in the editor).
This is a horror game, and it does get you scared in a way. No jump-scares, but the whole atmosphere is very tense. People have and will complain about the walking speed. Though I'll admit it is annoying (very much so), I believe it is intentionally so, and that suited the game well... in a sort of masochistic way? I mean, taking off the game's actual problems, the slow walking speed (I'm talking 1/4 normal) builds the game tension very well.
I liked the fact that the game feels different from anything else I've ever seen, even from other Moga games. You don't know in what kind of place you are, and what you can expect, so it's fun in terms of exploration. There are a few places, objects and characters that actually stand out, though most of the areas are somewhat repetitive.
Also, didn't notice any bugs!

The bad aka scary in a bad way
Overall, the game felt very unfinished. There are a bunch of characters that don't say anything, a bunch of items with which you can interact but nothing happens. Sometimes you get an item but you don't even know you got an item... I only noticed them when I checked my inventory.
The game's interface is very unfriendly. I played the game 3 or 4 times, and only by the middle of my second playthrough I noticed that there was a timer at the top of the screen, because it's black letters against a black background (most of the time). The selection/highlight color is almost the same as the background menu color, so navigating is kinda hard too.
I also hated (deeply) the fact that the whole place is a looping maze. Sometimes you feel like you advanced far into the game and that you're close to its ending, but then you find yourself in a room waaaaaaaay back. The sense of progression is very obscure. This game was clearly meant to be played many times, but it's just too painful to be played more than once or twice. I mean, xOMBYCAPYSE has a similar concept, and it is also meant to be played many times, but it's a much faster and nicer game. I'll admit, I only completed xOMBYCAPYSE by cheating, and I didn't even feel like cheating to see GB0's ending. Not just because the game is painful, but the overall experience is very unrewarding.

Considering the game's difficulty, I think it's highly unlikely that people will get to finish it. A game doesn't need to be finished to account for a valid experience, and I think that's the biggest problem with GB0: It's just not a good experience. My drive to finish was from wanting it to end (forever!), not from wanting to succeed.

Having said that
What I would recommend:
  • Clearer directions(because the game already has too many obstacles and unpleasant things to need you to get lost).

  • Interactable objects and NPCs. I was so happy when I found that outpost with a bunch of cool-looking characters, but they were non-interactable. Please, add if only some random strange talk. I want to get to feel the game's setting properly. And maybe some sort of gamey interactions? Like item shops, puzzles and whatnot.

  • A little bit of depth (not much) to the battle system. So it gets more engaging and doesn't feel like filler. Or just take battles off altogether.

  • Text indicatives whenever I get an item, or activate some meaningful switch.


One more thing... I just noticed that the screenshots I'm seeing in the gameprofile look somewhat different from the game I played. Why is that?

I believe Ghost Suburb Zero's concept will not appeal to everyone, but the real problem with the game doesn't lie in its concept, but in its execution. This game has a lot of potential (it could be as good as I'm Scared of Girls), it just needs some finetuning.