Bubble

Name: Bubble

Developer: MoonChildGames

Story: The world has been destroyed by nuclear war, supposedly, so the survivors live in a self-contained society within a nuclear shelter called "Bubble", created by BubbleCorp. One day, during work, Lilly finds a note in her friend's quarters revealing an awful truth, and imploring Lilly to come find her.




Writing: Very well done. The game is bright and cheerful, and the characters don't have a care in the world. Meanwhile, the signs of dystopia are all around you. Then, when Lilly finds Jill, you start to see the dystopia unravel. What's really unfortunate here is the pronounced lack of conflict. There's no danger. Jill isn't captured and put in one of those cells. Lilly doesn't have corporate goons chasing her while trying to free her friend. Lilly simply becomes part of what happens, and there's no threat, and when you get to the point where there's the hint of danger, the game never capitalizes on it. It's really unfortunate considering it's such an interesting story. What it does well is play up the mystery angle, even though, unfortunately later on, it begins to rely heavily on the trail of bread crumbs trope.

Gameplay: Just as it said in the writing section, the gameplay consists of following the bread crumbs. After you find Jill the first time, you realize something's wrong, and then when you go to the job cleaning quarters, when you clean Jill's quarters, you find a note, which is the first bread crumb, that leads you to other notes and a corporate memo that all eventually lead to Jill.




Graphics: Straight RTP and a bit on the plain side. Everything's a little bit sterile, unfortunately. Nothing about Bubble looks lived in. The ruins of the outside world are surprisingly clean, also.

Music: There's a few interesting pieces in here. You have selection of music in your quarters that you can choose from. Unfortunately, it doesn't follow you, and the second you go outside, you get a slightly obnoxious, overly cheerful overworld theme.




Conclusion: Not much of interest in the way of gameplay or visuals, although it has a nice title screen, but for an interesting story, it is worth a look.