Test Subject: Synaptix

Adapted from a SpringThing25 Review

Played: 4/11/25
Playtime: 20m 3 playthroughs

Synaptix is a work that posits a present/future where economic opportunity is so limited, human workforce so underserved by machines-are-cheaper capitalism, that the protagonist seeks out medical experimentation as a viable way forward. Ridiculous, right?

The scenario is painted clearly enough, with some endearingly detailed specifics on the protagonist’s living situation. Any reservations we have are repeatedly buried under a ‘guess there’s no choice’ shrug of compliance. There follows a series of dosages where the drug’s effects ramp up, modestly impact our protagonist’s daily life, give him some hallucinogenic visions, then (Spoiler - click to show)just settle into the background of ‘something I guess I did.’

It seems to present a dispiriting tale of no real choices. Even when presented with choices, they were quickly revealed as dead ends of wasted time. The real impactful choice seems to be your initial motivation for seeking the money in the first place. The side effect hallucinations cluster around that motivation, though seeing things through doesn’t really resolve uniquely.

There is one additional impactful choice: do you violate your non-disclosure to score some side money above and beyond your initial contract? It is an interesting problem to posit. While the terms of the experiment you sign on to and people conducting it are relatively benign, there is always the chance the side effects could be really bad. And the corp doesn’t care, not really, about that outcome, just needs the data. Arguably, the whole scenario is part of the system that led to rolling dice with your health to get money. Yet, pushing back against that system (Spoiler - click to show)is not better. You get rich but make the world demonstrably worse. Underlining that ‘success’ in this social system is still optimized and incentivized to personal gain over public good. By trying to break with a single available path, you are shown to be doubling down on that path after all.

All this is interesting to reflect on, but very light and underplayed in the work itself. The work is no-frills, ‘here’s what you want to do, you do it, (Spoiler - click to show)temporary win.’ That underplayed narrative tone does as much as anything to sell the impotence of choice when following the script of this post-capitalist dystopia. I appreciate the soft-sell approach to its dark premise, but the selling is SO soft it also kind of shrugs your engagement away. I see what happened to the protag. What choice did he have? What impact did he expect? Fiction doesn’t HAVE to inspire or terrify, but it could do… more than this?

Horror Icon: Carrie
Vibe: Big Pharma
Polish: Smooth
Gimme the Wheel!: If this were my work, I would feel compelled to use the purported function of the drug to enhance the themes of the piece directly, stitch another linkage into the story’s fabric. As it stands, while the drug in question is intended to confer useful abilities, it rarely seems to do more than generate some scenario-specific hallucinations. You could squint and see how the drug maybe enabled THOSE hallucinations, but I would take the squint out of it in my project.

Polish scale: Gleaming, Smooth, Textured, Rough, Distressed
Gimme the Wheel: What I would do next, if it were my project.

This is a nice-looking Twine game set in a dystopian near-future where most fun jobs are taken by AI and humans are given Universal Basic Income that lets them scrape by but without much purpose in life.

You are given the opportunity to do some experimental trials for a shady company. The trials have to do with a kind of neuron-affecting chemical injection, but to find out what it is, you'll have to proceed with your trial.

I found the writing engaging and the story interesting. It doesn't last too long. I just wish it either had a more solid ending or more options for interactivity. As far as I could tell, the majority of interaction was 'do this interesting thing' or 'stop the game early'. I just checked (stopping in the middle of writing this review) and tried replaying with a different first option and saw that it changes a good deal of the story, which is actually pretty neat. So I'll bump up the rating for that. But all 4 ending variations I've seen seem really anticlimactic, which is rough because the rest of the story flows so well.

This was great. A believable situation (a character desperate to earn a bit of extra money) in a future which may not be too far away: one where most jobs are done by robots, and most people are living precariously. Images of people on a website are computer-generated rather than real; people have temporary tattoos to confuse facial recognition software. There are several nice little observations on life in this world:

It’s pointless, making the effort to write your name neatly and with flair when you’re writing with your finger on a touch-pad, but you do it every time. Maybe people need small, pointless things to feel proud of.

There are two main areas of choice for the reader: a choice of three different reasons why you want to earn extra money (a dog requiring medical care; a bad living situation; a hobby), and the different choices for how you act, leading to one of a few different endings. The former of the two (Spoiler - click to show)doesn’t exactly change the outcome, but it’s a nice touch: your decisions make the game is more interesting upon replay, and it affects the strange dreams that you have when you are under the influence of the test drug. These are some of the most sinister passages in the game, and it’s worth playing all three versions (dog/roommates/hobby) to get the full effect.

Recently, I have seen a few IF games include mentions about AI, automation and how it could possibly lead to mass unemployment. Well, now we have once which puts this topic front and center (more or less, I suppose). You need money for... (the game gives you some options here)... and there are pretty much no jobs left for you to take to earn that money, due to the AI and employment crisis. Well, maybe except one. Being a medical test subject.

This game is pretty short, although there is a slight bit of branching where you can choose to back out halfway, screw the big corp with an illicit deal and so on. It's somewhat thought provoking, particularly in the context of a world where you need money and are running out of ways to earn it.

It was a fairly good read, and certainly gets one thinking.