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"Write"

  • Isrieri
  • 12/05/2013 02:08 AM
  • 1044 views
I ran into a spot of bother less than a minute into the titular game. The first obstacle consisted of two boulders blocking the way. I pushed them both, only to find that I had trapped myself: The boulders were off the edge of the screen, but were still solid on the other side and could not be affected. So I had to restart. But it's a short game, so I stuck with it. I'm glad I did. I had fun!

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Words, Words is a humble little adventure game where you play as a wizard who's trying to find his way off of an island. He has no name, and is a man of few words. Let's call him Esteban.

Esteban has the extraordinary power to manipulate words to his will. Deriving their usefulness from their meaning. It's an amazing power. All he has to do is command the rocks to move, and they move. He shouts at the fire to be quenched, and it is quenched. Such is weight of his titanic, commanding voice. Hence, his reticence among those he speaks to. Great power comes with great responsibility, after all.

The wizard must keep his wits about him and stay calm whilst exploring the deserted island. The silence and isolation are deafening, and he begins to feel the place close in around him. He can't remember where he was headed or how he came to be here, only that he must escape from the island before dark. He recovers his power of speech slowly but surely from the bottled messages he finds scattered on the beaches of the island. What do they contain? How do they inspire him? What is the great beast that lurks at the heart of this desolation and what relation does it have to Esteban? Does the island have some kind of connection to his power of speech?

That's the beauty of Words, Words. It's all about the interpretation, and immersing yourself in that perceived story. It's not meant to be a grand epic adventure, just a little side story. Whatever mindset you have coming into the game determines what you'll get out of it. I can't call it a great game but for what it is, it's entertaining and peaceful.
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But hey! There's two other little games here too! They're not quite as good though.


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Character Overload is presented to you as a top-down shooter, where your opponents are letters that you must reveal. I imagine it's like a giant typewriter of some sort. As you play, you'll find that these words form a great monologue consisting of mysterious and portentous thoughts. What does it say? Well, I couldn't get very far! This game is actually really clever, in that it uses your desire to read what's written as part of it's gameplay. It does get progressively trickier and harder to wiggle your way through the incoming walls of words. This is arguably the most fitting "tiny art game" of the trio.
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Desert Game on the other hand, doesn't bring much to bear. An extremely simple, minimalistic text adventure, giving off the impression of an early programming experiment. There's not much to say about it except - you're likely going to die of thirst in the desert. When you play the Desert Game you either win, or you die. And you'll die. Because deserts don't screw around.
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These games are almost too short and minimalistic to warrant a numeric score, but I feel that if I don't give it one, no one will check this out! I can't give it a high score based on it's technical quality: The game breaking bug I encountered, the lack of a score counter or some way of tallying your progress in Overload. I simply feel more could have been done to make this a more memorable experience. But I doubt that it was ever the game's intention to be more than an entertaining and thoughtful diversion.

I highly encourage everyone who reads this review to give it a shot, and maybe write a review of your own if you think it deserves a better score. It will literally take you less 40 minutes.

Posts

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Lovely review. It saddens me I wasn't here to read it earlier, but I'm very glad I did.

Definately making the name Esteban canon.
Pages: 1