divergence

Name: Divergence

Developers: psy_wombats, arcan, alterego

Story: There's been an industrial accident on a lunar base you're working on. A mysterious voice on the radio is trying to help you get out alive. I played until I literally could go no farther. The game can be hard to follow at times. I'm currently stuck with quite literally no clue of what to do next except the game's insistence that I'm "almost there". The voice on the radio is a bit creepy. He seems normal at first, but his "dear friend" is a giant electro-plasma monster that's trying to eat you and he desperately wants to meet it.

Gameplay: You walk around, pick up stuff and avoid stuff that can kill you and occasionally, you can push things. That's pretty much the gameplay setup for every game of this type from Gabriel Knight to Tass Times in Tone Town. You can literally get stuck in the walls and killed. No, this is not a glitch, but part of the actual gameplay and neat little sci-fi concept I probably should have elaborated upon in my story section, but decided to put it here since it is so relevant to the gameplay. That, I don't want to ruin it for you. It's really a neat part of the game. Suffice it to say that the rooms change and whether or not you can pass areas depends on what state the room is in.

Graphics: Excellent. It puts me in mind of games like Space Quest and Albion. Scenes and maps are beautifully rendered.

Atmosphere: Proof that a game can do "scary" without creepy or gross-out maps and spooky music. It has a science fiction feel overall, but the rooms changing back and forth, the mysterious man on radio saying increasingly creepy things, such as finding the idea of leading you to your incredibly gruesome death tempting, and the bizarre electro-plasma lizard just suddenly appearing on the screen with little or no warning, this game has plenty of scare factor. The deeper you go, the greater the urgency as you increasingly have to outrun the creature and often must hurry to get from one area to the next lest the map changes and you find yourself stuck in a wall or falling to your death.

Music: Techno--not sure if it's original or borrowed, but it works well with the game.

Problems: The game's very glitchy, which is probably due to the fact that it was done in a hurry. At several points, the text from the mysterious voice on the radio didn't disappear and began to overlap. During my first playthrough, it broke the chase scene, preventing the room from changing, and indeed, preventing the monster from catching me. Unfortunately, I also couldn't progress because of it and the game saved like that so I had to start a new one. I got an error log out of that playthrough and sent it to psy_wombats as per the readme instructions. Again, puzzles aren't often clear, as is the case in which you have to hurriedly navigate a large room that is quickly flashing between alternate rooms. You're instructed that you're almost there at one point but there's literally no clue for where to go. In the alternate rooms, mobility tends to be difficult as many of the plants can't be passed, and it isn't always clear which plants you can pass, as collision at many points keeps you from passing even when the path is clear (the sprite has to be exactly in the center of the correct path or he'll get stuck on objects.) Fortunately, this doesn't happen often, and is most noticeable (and annoying) on the Pandora's Box puzzle.

Conclusion: With a bit of love and care, this game easily has the potential to become a five star game, but as it stands now, there's really nothing to the game that makes you want to keep playing, it's very glitchy, and at points you're more confused than curious. I would rate this at 3.5 stars as it stands.