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Review
You open your eyes and slowly stand up. Trees surround you. It seems you woke up in a forest. You try to remember. Who are you and what are you doing here?
You wake up in a forest with no memory whatsoever. Not even your name. You have no other option than to get moving...
Gameplay
Following a brief intro in the forest, the gameplay takes place in a house. I can’t say much without spoiling it, but it’s clear that something happened inside this house. Gameplay is spent trying to find the truth.
There are only a handful of puzzles, and they are simple and intuitive. With one exception: (Spoiler - click to show)using the knife to enter the mirror portal. The command is “use knife on mirror.” However, there is nothing to suggest that the knife has any relevance to the mirror. I figured it out thanks to the comment section on the game’s website.
The implementation has room for improvement, particularly with verbs. That is, the game tends not to acknowledge them. Entering the house becomes needlessly frustrating.
> take key
You take the key.
> unlock front door
It is already unlocked.
> open front door
The front door is locked. You need a key to open it.
> unlock front door with key
That doesn't work.
The solution is: "Use key on front door." Because the game is made with Quest, I found it simpler to skip the keyboard and instead rely on the link-menu feature located at the top right corner of the screen.
Story/Characters
I was impressed with how the game builds the story in layers. Games featuring the amnesia trope run the risk of dumping major plot reveals on the player all at once. Texture does not do that. Its build-up is gradual… and then unexpectedly pulls a bait-and-switch that makes us reevaluate what we thought were established facts.
Often, my reviews provide heavy summaries because, A, I like discussing them, and B, it sets the stage for thoughts and analysis. PLEASE PLAY THE GAME FIRST.
(Spoiler - click to show)When you wake up in the middle of a forest with no memory, it’s usually an indicator that something drastic has happened. The truth lies inside the house. In the bedroom and bathroom, we find a bloody kitchen knife and an alarming amount of blood. Homicide. Could this be the work of a slasher serial killer? The truth is more mundane but just as tragic: domestic violence.
You're in the study of the house. Someone seems to have had a fight with a laptop and a lot of books.
A cursory glance around the house says it all. The interior has been smashed, and we find a discarded packet "that seems to have contained medication to treat chronic aggressive behaviour." We are clearly witnessing an aftermath. But right now, we only have questions.
What does all of this have to do with us? Why is there a bloodied portrait of a woman in the upstairs hallway?
The attic is where we start to find real answers. It contains a mirror and some lit candles. If you examine the mirror the game says, "Strangely enough, you can't see the image of yourself in it.” Players may come to the same conclusion as I did: we’re a ghost… of the person who was murdered, and we’ve returned because have unfinished business.
The mirror is a portal. A door. And the knife is the key. Stepping through the mirror takes us back to a moment after the murder but before the house was ransacked (no blood in the bedroom and bathroom, though). While we cannot leave the house, we can access the formerly smashed laptop. Its screen displays a chilling article: "Woman found dead in forest". That must be us! We are the ghost of the woman in the article and now have learned the awful truth.
…or have we? This is when the game pulls a nimble bait-and-switch: We’re not dead at all. We’re the dead woman’s husband, and we killed her.
This twist is revealed when we return to the present and recognize the woman in the hallway portrait as our dead wife. This jolts the protagonist’s memory of the murder, and the player is sent back to this exact moment: Bedroom. Wife is packing her bags. The game gives us little choice but to use the knife on her.
Cue the present, again. We’re in the bedroom, but we can only access the upstairs hallway because the staircase collapsed and there is rubble blocking the exits. The portrait has vanished, and in its place is a hole in the wall. We find a tree emblem that fits inside the hole. When we do this, we lose consciousness…
…and wake up in the forest with the police closing in to arrest us. Game ends.
Thoughts
What a ride. My speculation is this: (Spoiler - click to show)After the protagonist killed his wife and smashed everything in the house, he left and passed out in the forest. The entire gameplay was the protagonist dreaming/hallucinating about what happened only to be awakened by the arrival of law enforcement. Part of my guess is based on the inconsistencies between the mirror world and the timeline of the murder. If the mirror world takes place after the murder, why is there no blood where the murder happened? It couldn’t have been cleaned up because it’s there when we explore the house in the present.
I really like how the text at the end is reminiscent of the game’s opening.
(Spoiler - click to show)You open your eyes and slowly stand up. Trees surround you. It seems you woke up in a forest. A policeman shouts: "Police! Put your hands up!"
I am grateful that we got this ending. You see, the player spends most of the game thinking that they’re the ghost of a victim. Or at least I did. So, finding out that no, we’re the monster, elicits feelings of disgust. The murder scene is equally explicit and enraging. As a result, it is a relief to learn that the protagonist will ultimately be held accountable.
I know this is a small detail to complain about, but I don’t understand the (Spoiler - click to show)point of the tree emblem and the hole in the wall. What meaning does it have in the story? I suppose tree = forest, and we both start and end the game in a forest. Still, it felt like a weak attempt at incorporating one last puzzle before the game ended.
While I applaud the overall storytelling, there is space for growth. Room descriptions tend to be bare bones, and this is a missed opportunity to provide context on the story and give it more dimension. The layout of the house feels a bit odd, as if the author decided to only include the rooms that would have a purpose in the story. No living room?
Also, when you examine yourself, the game says, “Who are you and what are you doing here?” and “Your memory is gone.” Problem is, this stays the same after we regain our memories. It doesn’t make sense for the game to (Spoiler - click to show)force us into recreating the murder only to act like we have no memory of what is going on. It even would have been a perfect chance to elaborate on the protagonist and his history with his wife.
One last thing: I’m trying to figure out why the author chose “Texture” as the title. How does it fit into the game?
Visuals
As a Quest game, Texture uses background colours tailored to the player’s location. For example, when we’re in the forest, the background is green. (Spoiler - click to show)The bloodstained bedroom and bathroom? Dark red. And so forth.
Until (Spoiler - click to show)you enter the mirror portal (see Story section) where every location has a pure white background. I liked the storytelling merit of this. The mirror world is described as tidy and unsoiled, and the blankness of its background sharply contrasts with the blood, destruction, and ruin that is found in the house on the “real” side of the mirror portal.
Final thoughts
The amnesia trope is somewhat of a cliché, and you might roll your eyes upon learning that this game begins in the middle of a forest. But Texture really does offer something new. I did not see the ending coming. Right when I thought I had figured everything out, the game went and turned the tables on me. The use of the (Spoiler - click to show)mirror portal was especially memorable.
I would like to give Texture a higher rating, but the implementation needs refinement. Unlocking and opening a door shouldn’t be so confusing. The integration of the story with the gameplay sometimes wears thin. At least update the PC’s description once the amnesia goes away.
And yet, these rough edges did not prevent Texture from leaving me staring at the screen in stunned silence. Content-wise, this is a game with (Spoiler - click to show)explicit portrayals of sexual violence and murder. I was horrified to discover the PC’s identity. But his fate at the end allows us to part ways with the game on a more optimistic note.
If the author ever decides to make another game, I would definitely be interested.
