metrolith

This is a very short game. I don't know how many times I played it. You must play it over and over to explore the city fully. In that way, the game draws you into it just as the city does the characters.

The city is unknowable. Gaining familiarity with its features only makes those features more obscure. You glimpse something, you think you understand, might formulate some connection, and then you turn a corner and you're lost again.

You have the choice to play as multiple characters. Although each one explores the same locations, their perspectives yield different experiences. Two characters, a bandit and bounty hunter, live through the same story from opposing sides. The other characters drift in and out on their own personal journeys.

It is worth playing through as all the characters, but that's not strictly necessary. This isn't a game about figuring anything out. It's about brushing against something subconscious that you recognize and yet can't name or comprehend.

With this short Twine game, in which you could play a wide pool of characters, Porpentine convert Zdislaw Beksinski uncanny landscapes in fantastic short stories (as Harlan Ellison did with Jacek Yerka paintings).

NB :this game is no longer available on Aliendovecote, but could be played on the author's website :

http://slimedaughter.com/games/twine/metrolith.html