Tabula Rasa

You are an A.I. of a maternity ward. You’ve calculated that humanity is on the verge of being wiped out by human-driven climate collapse. But today, a child was born. Somehow you just know that this child will be the one to save the human race.

Tabula Rasa is a Twine game that revolves around a single action: inputting numerical values to create the “perfect” family for the child. If the child is going to save the world they need an adequate family, right? It’s all up to you!

Gameplay
The child’s family is defined by four qualities, such as wealth, that you set by typing a number from one to five into a text box. Then you press enter.

(…25 years go by…)

The game then reveals if the child- now an adult- succeeded in saving the planet. The end.

There’s not a lot going on here. It begins and ends in a matter of seconds.

Characters
Despite the child’s status as the “Chosen One,” we don’t know anything about them. As for us… Look, I realize that this game most likely isn’t meant to be taken seriously. Even so, I found the A.I.’s entitlement to be extremely off-putting.

Never mind the child's biological parents.

Wait a minute. There’s no moral consideration to this whatsoever. No acknowledgement of what the parents may think. No follow up, nothing. (But humanity is on the line!) Nope, it still bugs me.

Story
I don’t even know where to start. The game is too short to truly have a story.

By your calculations, this child is the absolute last chance for humanity.

Out of all the A.I.s on the planet, the one that steps up to save the day is some random A.I. in a hospital that (somehow) has the foresight to know that this specific child will be the Chosen One to save humanity? The logistics of it all. Make. No. Sense.

??? You’re an A.I. who took a child from their parents because you thought you knew what was best for everyone. What makes you the expert on what the “right” family would be for this child? Everything in the game is underscored by this outrageous fact.

Perhaps the author intends this to be a silly game. If so, it misses the target. The player is more inclined to fuss over the details than to find it humorous. And if the goal is to share a message about saving the planet, the endings have no basis for discussion.

Your child grew up happy, healthy, and well-adjusted! And also uninclined to do anything about global warming.

What kind of message is this? Being well-adjusted means you won’t do anything about global warming?

Endings
I will say, I was motivated to find all six endings. The column on the left side of the screen keeps track of the endings you’ve reached. For example, if you reach Ending 2, a “2” lights on the column. Something about this really made me want to see all six numbers light up. No gaps between numbers. I had to find all six.

And I did. (Spoiler - click to show)Ending 1 is the “win” ending.

Visuals
I appreciate that Tabula Rasa offers more than Twine’s default appearance. A black and white image of a forest is used as a backdrop. The image does look a bit like something you might find in a horror game. However, it does an excellent job at making the white text stand out. It’s noticeable enough to keep things interesting. And yet, you hardly notice it’s there. The seafoam blue links were also well-chosen.

Final thoughts
Do I give Tabula Rasa one or two stars? The gameplay is non-existent, and the story is pretty much the same way. I really can’t tell what kind of experience the author had in mind for the player. Everything about it seems to fall short.

What gets me (aside from the child-snatching A.I.) is that the central gameplay mechanic is reduced to the player punching in numbers to see what sticks rather than engaging the player in any meaningful way.

On the other hand, it did have enough of a draw for me to want to find every ending. And I must admit that the design choices elevate the overall quality. There are plenty of ways it could be worse…

What the heck. Two stars.