miércoles, 15 de junio de 2011

Sometimes Games Are not just about Fun

Maybe I'm discovering boiled water here, but today I stumbled upon a little game. I downloaded it because it was very small, so even if it was bad, I wouldn't have wasted too much time and space with the download. Its name is Gravitation, and it was released in 2008 (wow! that says how much into gaming I am these days!

I expected spaceships or something, but the description was quite unusual: "A video game about mania, melancholia, and the creative process by Jason Rohrer." Well, I could feel all that and even a bit of confusion while playing the little game. WARNING: If you are one of those kids deeply immersed into zombie-killing and hi-octane racing frenzy, you would probably not enjoy this game. In fact, the artwork would be more than enough to make you scream and run away as if it were a real-life zombie:



If you, nevertheless, have the guts to try it, let me say that it will be a different experience. Since I didn't quite understand what I was doing in the game, I decided to investigate a bit about it. So, gravitation led me to its predecessor, called Passage. I know this is old news for some because Passage was really famous about 4 years ago. This game has an interesting?/unusual?/striking?/shocking? feature. Check out the character you manipulate as you play...



If you didn't know about these games and still have followed me this far, I urge you to try both. Then, whatever your reaction about them may be, please go to the author's page and read the game explanations. You will find something really serious about gaming there. I won't say anything else because I don't want to spoil your fun.

6 comentarios:

  1. I downloaded them from the repositories, so I run them normally, as any other game :P

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  2. I played them... They ARE painfully serious, aren't they?

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  3. I liked it. Gravitation was more dense than Passage IMO. Makes me think of another game, though not an "ArtGame" but a commercial game: Silent Hill. I recently played Shattered Memories, though I have never been a fan of the terror genre (I get scared xD).

    This Silent Hill is different from others but for people that haven't played any other SH games is quite good.

    This game is an attempt to understand through memories an event that happened though they don't make much sense.
    Part of the game takes place in the therapist's office helping the character to get through the event. There is where the memories are recalled.
    The other part of the game takes place inside the memories, with the player reviving the memory as he plays.

    The player is observed and evaluated by the game as they play and their actions will have an effect on multiple aspects of play, including the appearance of its attendant monsters and characters' attitudes, gender and clothing changing according to the player's choices.

    There are lots of psychological elements that affects the game, and interacting with therapist and how differently he may respond and his insights... felt very crazy to me. Also the game has nice plot twists.

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  4. @Vanargand,
    Those two sound like worth playing! :)

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