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The Masterpiece that is Ib

  • Kylaila
  • 10/02/2014 04:55 PM
  • 864 views
Ib (read: Eve) is a short puzzler exploring the depths of an art gallery. You visited the exhibition of a famous artis with your parents, but shortly after you arrive nobody is there to be seen and the only path left is to go deeper down.


.. where to?

The World

The atmosphere is creepy from hands appearing out of nowhere over walking through mouths to portraits practically popping off the wall. While there is danger everywhere, there are no instakills nor major jumpscares - it is creepy, tense, but not scary.
Instead, the gameplay focuses on puzzles to get you through the new-forming art gallery which provides you with a mild difficulty and many creative ways to play around with your environment. But it does get disturbing at times.

There is a lot of variety and very clever ones as well, using the portrait theme - for example, you need to use the hook of a fisher portrait to move an item downstairs or use a crack in the floor to let a living statue fall over.
It boils down to finding the next keys and avoiding enemies most of the time, or finding codes, pieces of information or the right sequence for specific actions.

However, some mild chase parts can become rather tedious, as one is set in a labyrinth of sorts. It does not add much and as the pace isn't set too high, it will not get your blood boiling, either, but will need a couple of retries.
There are a few more puzzles working under the sense of danger which do benefit from that, though (escaping a room in time as one).

Soon after stumbling into this living and changing gallery, you meet other travellers and team up to find a way out. Namely Gary and Mary. The multiple endings depend on your choices along the way and at the end of the game .. which then determines with whom you will leave this place. If at all.

They are rather likeable by themselves, with Ib acting as a silent, unfazed and neutral protagonist. And although her general behaviour is much more neutral, her fears and problems are projected onto the environment rather than onto dialogue.
I found Gary much more likeable for a couple of reasons, you will also learn more about him directly. While he claims to want to protect her, he is obviously much more scared of this world as Ib is.

Yet what is unsettling is not only that this place is creepy and dangerous, but that the environment seems to be influenced by the mind of the person seeing it - just as art is.
Which also raises the question of danger from within, that is, from your other companions.
This game will not answer many questions in regard to what actually happened, or why .. but it does give hints along the way for interpretation. It also explores the fictional creator of all those pieces a little bit, as well as his creations themselves which is as important for the characters as the spoken dialogue.

The Art

A huge portion of this game lies in the artwork presented. The soundtrack, too, is full custom and features melancholic to creepy tunes. The soundtrack as a whole is very memorable and adds greatly to the atmosphere.
The graphics are wonderful - Ib is one great example to demonstrate that low resolution does not equal bad graphics/asthetics.

The corridors start off rather barren, if not for the portraits, but become more lively over the course of the game. While it makes sense themewise, it still diminishes the impact of the asthetics slightly.

There is a full gallery of pixellated portraits and statues, some small, some large. There is a huge variety to be had here, and they are very nice to look at. "The World", the leading portrait, is a large painting of a langscape in abstract form, for example, and changes/detoriates once interacted with.
The portraits also have their own titles, which you may not be able to read at first which leaves you to wonder about its meaning. This portion does not make sense in English. But Ib is young and cannot be able to read all Kanji - thus will not understand part of the title. Your companion can read them for you, however.

The portraits themselves are full of life .. literally. The coughing man coughs when you run past him, others are animated and chase you. Others are found as game mechanics or as a room theme. Your health bar is indicated by a rose and its petals (there is a huge rose statue with petals nearby found in the gallery, by the by).
There is also more than just portraits, and whole rooms will be under that spell.

The most incredible feat of Ib is how differently you view the very same artgallery you first stepped into once you finish the game and return to it.
The memories, experiences and backgrounds for each and every piece make the boring gallery ominous and the simple pieces unsettling. You will remember those headless statues as the ones chasing you around throughout the whole game. And while they have their own symbolism (they are titled "loss of individuality"), they have changed for you over the course of the game. They gained a meaning beyond the mere asthetics.


Good. Now go move that statue out of the way!

After you've played the game, you will be able to view all portraits that you know the title of. You will also be able to listen to the soundtrack, have additions to it according to the endings you've seen and unlock a bonus dungeon for the next playthrough (which I can really recommend checking out).

I must say that while I did not take a deeper interest into art, this game has changed how I view and deal with the expressions found in artworks and has taught me to appreciate it for what it is.

Ib does a splendid work of demonstrating what art can be, and what a game can be with it.
If you haven't played it, go do it now. And if you did, go do it anyway.