Enlightened Master

I almost gave up on this game before hitting the change-point. While there is a contextual justification for having an extremely linear introduction, I would say it is fairly flimsy. Without an indication that the level of interactivity will change the player is left without any real motivation to continue past their first attempts at doing something, anything, aside from UP or CAMP. Even the apparently lovely views are beyond our reach.

However, once I made it past this initial disappointment, the game endeared itself to me greatly. I don't want to give away too much so I'll put my thoughts behind a spoiler tag.

(Spoiler - click to show)The pinball game provides a great backdrop for what could otherwise be a philosophical infodump, and the overall feel of philosophy talk while shooting targets lightens the mood. I liked the voice of the Master, and found the game became strangely relaxing as I was playing, just directing the ball and thinking. The minigame sections were a nice touch, though I found myself wishing for greater interactivity and also better synonym implementation (eg I had to look at 'apple' not 'fruit', and objects mentioned in the highway description could not be given greater scrutiny).

Overall, this turned out much better than the beginning had led me to believe, and with a bit of expansion and more player motivation it could be a really nice little exploration of its theme.

This game has the same design philosophy as the authors' last games, but with a very different set of mechanics.

The opening sequence is thrilling, with a strong buildup to... something extremely odd.

This game discourses at great length about advanced mathematics and philosophy while you are engaging in something utterly trivial, but it manages to blend the two together.

It was a trippy and surreal experience. I played until the game said I had no more to learn, but I didn't get a high score. If you get lost, shoot the magnet.

This game was not for me. I found the intro monotonous and the second part of the game was incredibly frustrating to interact with. I liked where the philosophy was heading but I was fighting the "controls" too hard to enjoy it. However the uniqueness of the game and the surprise element make it worth going over to see it's your bag.