Habeas Corpus

This one had me at “explore abandoned spaces”—but this isn’t your average abandoned building; rather, it’s a Howl’s Moving Castle-esque fortress, forever roaming. The second-person protagonist wakes up with only a vague grasp of who they are or why they’re here, putting the focus on what you do in the here-and-now rather than your backstory. Explore the accessible rooms; discover the few remaining inhabitants. As you do, you’ll uncover a rough idea of the purpose of this place, and what happened to bring it to its current state.

The heart of the game, though, is the creature that appears to be powering this massive, semi-organic(?) vehicle. The first room I visited happened to be the one containing them, and their description is evocatively disturbing:

“A creature perches upon the dais, clawed talons curled around the edge of the platform. Fire engulfs their body, consuming their feathered wings, but the blaze appears to spare their flesh. Other than the flutter of feathers burning and growing in perpetuity, the harpy is motionless, upright but unconscious. …No visible bindings hold them in place, yet they cannot move.”

After trying and failing to communicate with the harpy, I continued my exploration, but remained intrigued and troubled by this trapped figure. A (Spoiler - click to show)soon-discovered discarded voice box appeared to be the key to freeing them, but (Spoiler - click to show)upon returning, I didn’t see a way to give it to them. So I (Spoiler - click to show)returned to the room where I was promised deep, dreamful sleep, and so found my first ending.

Of course, (Spoiler - click to show)giving the voice box to the harpy is, indeed, what you’re meant to do, which I discovered when I played again. To get that option, you have to go to the engine room, click the “approach” button, then click the “examine” button. On my first try, I’d stopped at the “approach” level. I’m trying to decide whether I consider this a design flaw or a perhaps-intentional way to channel players toward getting the “Lotus-eater” ending first. Because on my second playthrough, having initially failed made it more exciting when I discovered that I actually could provide the harpy with the means to communicate, and then escape with them.

Stories about kindness in the face of grim circumstances will always get me. After my second playthrough, I looked up “habeas corpus” to refresh my memory, and found it a fitting title for a game where we play as the judge vested with the power to set a wrongful prisoner free.

Habeas Corpus is a short interactive surreal exploration through an abandoned wandering fortress. You awaken in its centre, only sure that you were meant to be in this space - even if you are not quite sure where you are, or even who you are anymore. In this unfamiliar and perpetually moving construction, you are prompted to look around the 5 different available rooms and its contents. Rummaging through those, you may find objects which can unlock further interactions. Depending on your actions, you may end up with one of two endings.

The highlight of this game is its atmosphere: a mystery shrouded in its incomplete description and minimal exposition, continued through an exploration that reveals little still. You won’t solve the mystery, but might manage to fit some of its pieces together - though you’ll still be left with more questions than answers. I kept wondering what we had done to end up here.

Relating back to the title, Habeas Corpus, I imagined the building your find yourself within to be some sort of dystopian machinery imprisoning its residents. You seem certain of your place in this environment, but who says whether you came here with your own volition or you were brought here against your will. If only you remembered things clearly…

I think the styling of the interface influenced this sci-fi dystopian read on the story, with its pixelated font, the shaky cycling text, and the old school 3D buttons. It made me think of computer interfaced you’d find in sci-fi movies like Aliens or The Matrix.

Overall, this was an interesting game to play, if just for the exploration and the atmosphere.

Habeas Corpus is a short game submitted to a jam with the rule of being no longer than 1,000 words. It is a surreal story about finding a way out of a decaying place, and yet this is not a typical escape game. I have a habit for writing excessively long reviews so I will try to do the same thing here!

You awake in a decrepit moving fortress, unsure of who you are. Even your own reflection is unfamiliar. All you have are five rooms to explore: Dormitory, Armory, Engine room, Concourse, and Nexus, where the game begins. The gameplay predominantly uses the “approach,” “examine,” and “talk” command that are available in certain rooms. Some rooms seem to be merely atmospheric. While this game is largely exploratory, there are some small puzzles about searching your surroundings to finding clues about your whereabouts.

There is minimal exposition on the story. It's ambiguous but no means incomplete, either. We are not sure of why we are in the fortress or the protagonist’s backstory. It left me with some questions. For instance, (Spoiler - click to show) is the dying body in the dormitory supposed to be yourself? Are you dead? That was my initial impression. But for a game of no more than 1,000 words it does well in sewing together a story out of a surreal concept (although I know the jam gives you more wiggle room than other jams that only allow 100 words).

The game’s description explains that there are multiple endings. I only found two: (Spoiler - click to show) LOTUS-EATER and FIRMAMENT, the second appearing to be the “good” ending. It’s a nice ending enough ending about (Spoiler - click to show) escaping with the harpy that effectively concludes the gameplay.

The appearance is snazzily stylized. The text is white with an angular font. Links are either dynamic animated black 3D boxes or glowing peach colour links. The latter bounces when you click on it, cycling between two to four words that provide extra descriptions. The background is horizontal black and dark grey stripes. Meanwhile, the top of the screen is a panel of red and dark red horizontal strips with a grey border. Slowly, these panel colours change as you explore. The panel has buttons for each room, next to each are door icons. I’d say this is a polished and clever design!

It is not a particularly memorable game or one that I would play again, but it is one that I enjoyed and replayed to find the endings. Some of it even has a few Porpentine vibes. If you are a fellow fan of Porpentine or of G.C. Baccaris’s other works (be sure to try Heretic’s Hope, it’s quite a thrill), Habeas Corpus is a fun option.