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Beyond Flashback: Forking plot paths, January 8, 2010This adventure is great fun: plot progression has a good pace and rarely stalls. The setting is intriguing and well crafted. A good number of puzzles, some quite hard to solve. But the real puzzle is coming to grips with the plot.
It's difficoult to review this game without spoiling its enjoyment. So, I'll rather stick to some general hindsight considerations about what makes it really innovative.
The game uses flashback in a way which reminds of Borges Garden of forking paths: the player has to go (must) through a series of choices that will divert plot until a dead end ... an restart from scratch and seek an alternative plot path.
Each replay benefits from the previous game experience, which is the key to step in the alternative paths. Yet, a point comes were a last path joins all the previous loose plot threads and leads to the winning situation.
"The whole is greater than the sum of its parts!"
So, not just flashback as mere information retrieval: flashback as a time-space gate. If you've seen Donnie Darko movie, you'll know what I'm speaking about.
I warn you: the final path is not in plain sight as it might seem. The author doesn't make it easy at all: subtle techniques are implemented to make you believe that you got into a dead end.
Just a little hint: Jon Ingold leaves no bugs behind him! So, if you think you've stepped into a game bug: think again! Exploit whatever the game offers you.
I really hope that Jon Ingold will be exploiting this narrative technique in future games, it could make really thik plots.