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Review
Not on an intellectual level: the plot makes perfect sense once you get to the end. However, the fear that underlies the story in this game is alien to me. I'm sure that sounds insensitive, and that's not my intention - when I read the blurb, I was expecting gender dysphoria, which is something I know of, even though I'm lucky enough to never have experienced it. Not to spoil anything, the body dysphoria in Staring at a Single Face Forever is something different, and I can't really connect with it.
That said, the game is well implemented, and the writing is top notch. Especially the desert sequence is jealousy-inducingly well written.
In short, a good story and stylistically beautiful. It just didn't connect emotionally with me, which is a bit of a problem when reading an emotionally-driven story. Other players may very well have a different experience.
Even if not, it's well worth a playthrough.
Comments on this review
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Total spoilers--
(Spoiler - click to show)
I really think the central issue here is that the mystery, the interest, is WHO AM I--who is the character. It uses the classic IF character/player relationship, but it doesn't do so well, which is why the game falls so flat for me.
I actually LOVE this "genre" or concept--humans that want to be robots--one of my favorite short novels is Correspondence, by Sue Thomas, which handles all of this (dream sequences, longing, disgust and distrust of humans) brilliantly. I think I'm the target audience for this, but it completely failed to resonate with me as well.
I think part of the problem is in the length--this needs to be longer so we can have more chances to connect to the character--but I also think this needs to be edited to have more focus. We have no idea who our character is, which is normal in this type of story because our character isn't sure of their own identity, but we should be able to see more interactions and exposition around our identity. What are our values? What do we love? What do we look forward to? There isn't any data there to connect with.
I think the game would be a lot stronger if it let us explore our surroundings more, even if it was still in a dream state; I suspect our character has tried to kill itself and ended up in the hospital in a drugged stupor. More exploration of actual surroundings (even if they are somewhat surreal as a result of being in a dream), combined with better feedback about who we are (beyond our identity as a man or a machine) would really improve the emotional depth here.
