Verses

Adapted from an IFCOMP24 Review

There is inarguably some distortion inherent in IFCOMP’s format that has a deforming effect on reviews and to some extent judging itself. No, this is not my entre’ into hate-click Youtube Bad Takes ™. “IFCOMP is BAD, ACTUALLY…” of course not. But it does not help us to pretend this phenomenon does not exist, and disadvantage some kinds of works. The most obvious impact is to games that are longer than two hours, the IFCOMP judging time limit. Comparing a work with no ending (in the 2hr limit) to one that ends is a pretty big handicap. It still feels like the right compromise, especially for the prospective judging pool.

Verses reveals a second order compromise that I’ve danced around but never confronted as directly as here. For those of us that presume to speed run IFCOMP, in the interests of getting through the entire field, mindshare is a finite resource. Beyond the raw playtime, there is reflection and review composition (and revision) time. Works that wear their intent on their sleeve are relatively easy to consume and discuss. Works that require a serious mental marinade to decode can be shortchanged by the pressures of ‘so many more to get to.’

Longtime readers, I have a shameful confession to make. Even after a disproportionate amount of mindshare, I still do not understand this work. It presents initially as a vague dystopia/fantasy world where the protagonist is analyzing historical artifacts to uncertain purpose. Their environment is sketched loosely, not too many details to distract, but also not enough details to resolve into anything concrete. You know how you can draw a horse in three lines? You can also draw three lines that confound interpretation. Not only is the world tantalizingly out of focus, the plot progression sees the player interact with cryptic NPCs, then watch their job morph, without comment, from object to text analysis. And the protagonist morph (Spoiler - click to show)to something vaguely monstrous? Every progression seemingly without clear cause-and-effect or motivation, culminating in truly opaque scenes and developments. The below text, for example, was not only the first mention of ‘towering cells’ but its construction defied my brain’s ability to form coherent images.

“As you approach the coast, the sky clears, but the soft-edged shadows remain. When one of these towering cells blocks the road, you get out and bite into it, chewing and swallowing, letting its liquid gush onto the earth.”

All of this steers to an inevitably metaphoric interpretation of somehow-stark-AND-imprecise impressionistic events. Which after several days of reflection, I still cannot decode. This review nearly did not make it to IFDB, as it is hard to justify a review with nothing to say beyond “this work is beyond me.”

The only reason it's here at all is the work's inclusion of Romanian Poetry. The author credits Romanian Poetry for inspiration, and there is a good amount of it, both inline to the story and as optional sidequests. My first takeaway is, “Romanian poetry is pretty damn good.” Not that it needs my approval, but for a guy who openly professes ambivalence to the art, it was noteworthy to me.

My second takeaway is that I have never seen as compelling yet simple demonstration of how fraught any translation but especially poetry can be. By changing links incrementally, from raw word transposition, to grammar infusion, to poetic interpretation it is made crystal clear what an imprecise endeavor this is. Where does the work of the poet stop and the translator begin? Is the translated work, ultimately, an unwilling collaboration, as much of the translator as the author? How challenging is it for the translator attempting to minimize this? All of this was conveyed by masterful use of interactivity, without a word of text applied or needed. I found myself translating poetry on the side because the mechanism and conundrum were so compelling (and not for nothing, easier to get my head around than the rest of the work).

I have to believe there is some linkage between the poetry, the act of translating, and the narrative, but I am damned if I could suss it out. Does translation eat away at you until you are a rabid consumption machine? I’m not a translator, but I don’t see how it would do that. It is unclear if I could EVER find the linkages here, but under the constraints of the COMP, for sure no. Outside the translation mechanism, there was nothing concrete enough for me to grab onto, and ultimately this made it a Mechanical work for me. Dousing me with images I could not cohere, into a plot I could not follow. I have never been more tempted to peek outside my review bubble for help. Mike and Victor probably understand this, and have stunningly insightful takes. For me, this line from the work so summarized my experience, to the point I laughed out loud when I read it:

“What you can’t understand and may never understand is that you are not here to understand.”

Played: 9/19/24
Playtime: 70m
Artistic/Technical ratings: Mechanical/Seamless, bonus point for innovative translation mechanism
Would Play After Comp?: No, brain hurty too baddy

Artistic scale: Bouncy, Mechanical, Sparks of Joy, Engaging, Transcendent
Technical scale: Unplayable, Intrusive, Notable (Bugginess), Mostly Seamless, Seamless