Eliza

Eliza has a lot going for it. It tackles an issue that could very well become something real in the near future and in some ways one that has already started in dealing with the possible benefits and pitfalls of digital therapy options; it has a good cast of characters; it has great voice acting; and good art. I found the story to be a little linear for my tastes. You can make a major choice near the end of the game but aside from that it is mainly just choosing whether to be hostile or not to certain people but end up at the same spot. I chalk this up to Zachtronics not having much experience with the visual novel genre. It does a good job of laying out your potential options for later in the game though by making sure to drop hints of different paths you can take and you spend the bulk of the game considering what kind of career path you want to pursue. That being said the story is top notch regardless. I would have liked a bit more of an epilogue though as the ends I got to lacked detail. I also would have liked to get more background of why Evelyn left her job in the first place and what her friend was going through. I also wish I didn’t have to choose between which friend to hang out with near the end as I really enjoyed both Nora and Rae but such is life. They were both very well done characters that really felt like friends and had great dialogue exchanges with Evelyn. I would have also liked to have a path where Evelyn broke off on her own and started her own software company instead of the choices I did get. I played Eliza on Linux. It never crashed on me and I didn’t notice any spelling errors. Alt-Tab didn’t work. There is no manual save options. The game auto saves on each page you’re on so whenever you quit it goes back to exactly where you were. I’m not sure which game engine it uses but it uses OpenGL. AMD Ryzen 5 2600X | 16GB DDR4-3000 CL15 | MSI RX 5700 XT 8GB Gaming X | Mesa 20.0.4 | Manjaro 19.0.2 | Mate 1.24 | Kernel 5.6.5-1-MANJARO

This is a visual novel game where all you have to do is read the dialogue and press next. There's not a lot of interactivity, except for checking your phone and playing the optional minigame Kabufuda Solitaire. Throughout the course of the game, you'll meet several clients (some of them are repeat visitors) who are experiencing depression, anxiety, and relationship problems. The AI you're interacting with goes through a fixed phase of Introduction-Discovery-Challenge-Intervention-Conclusion and will generate a script that you're not allowed to deviate from. As the game progresses, it made me think if such a formulatic and rigid model is the most effective and helpful approach or not. Outside of therapy sessions, you get to interact with several characters such as the rebellious Nora, the old yet ambitious Soren, and the cold calculative Rainer. They all are quite well developed with distinct personalities, with varying opinions on how technology should be utilised. Despite the lack of animation and artwork variety, the game makes up for it with solid voice acting that brings the characters' personalities to life. The background music complements the scenes, changing to reflect the current mood. Without spoiling anything, there are multiple endings to this game, despite it being mostly linear up till the last chapter. There's no 100% right or wrong decision, as the game shows, it's really up to you which decision you choose to make, there's no perfect choice, perfect moment. I'm really hoping there would be a sequel or prequel to the game, as there's still several areas and character backstories that could be further explored.

Eliza the visual novel shares its name with Eliza the AI, an algorithm designed to provide counselling services within the game's narrative. The narrative significance of the AI however is not the only reason for naming the game after it. It is explained in the plot that the Eliza AI was designed to "hold up a mirror" to its users, to help people reflect on the problems that they face and the questions that are bothering them. This is precisely the effect that Eliza the game had on me, and, judging from other reviews here, I am not alone in this. The range of topics that Eliza touches is broad: technological progress, AI, privacy, mental health and the array of human suffering, to name but a few. The game acknowledges that the problems that we as people face, both practical and philosophical, are complex, and prompts the player to reflect on these issues, often exploring different perspectives along the way. Eliza the game does not and cannot present any concrete answers to these questions, just as Eliza the AI's recommendations to its clients often feel so woefully inadequate. But, unlike the AI, the visual novel is not trying to solve your problems for you. If it is taking a stance, that stance consists of urging the player to approach their questions with an open mind, challenging conventional answers and giving serious consideration to alternatives. For taking the default route without critical reflection is like having no choice at all -- a plight that both the player and Evelyn, the main character, have to contend with for much of the game. I think that Eliza is a piece of fiction that most people will find meaningful, and I wholeheartedly recommend it. I should also add that the game uses interactivity well to communicate its themes and that the quality of the voice acting cannot be overstated. I urge you to sit down with Eliza and to engage in a conversation with it. You might be pleasantly surprised with what it has to offer.

liked: * Artwork. * Some of the voice acting. * Rae was pretty convincing. * Its description of the (d)evolution of a tech company (have been there). * Some of the client stories were uncomfortably real. * Some belated player-agency towards the end. * Sound. disliked: * Found the protagonist to be unconvincingly bland. * Couldn't tell Soren to fuckoff early in the game. * Lack of menace. At one point I thought someone was being mis-prescribed drugs, but nothing happened. Also worried about protagonist being forced into transparency mode late in the game & cause trouble for others, but again nothing happened. * No mention of how transparency mode violates non-consenting 3rd-parties. * No plot-twists. I was hoping Nora was a new kind of proxy (like an ad-buddy), given her sudden coincidental appearance. * Padded dialogue; ended up clicking through a lot while skimming it.

I'm not into visual novels. Or, up to Eliza, I was sure I wasn't. This game doesn't bring game play nor ideas - it brings Question, and a big one: what makes human intelligence humane and intelligent? Evelyn, player character, feels very relatable. We've all been there - alone, lonely, struggling, not daring to hope. As if she was a NPC in her own life. In a joke of cosmic irony, she finally settles in a job, where every word she says is written by a giant AI system. Which she is the co-author of. Player choices are very limited, and I would mind it elsewhere, but in Eliza - given the job Evelyn has - single-choice dialogs (which effectively are zero-choice) are surprisingly on theme. The setup overall is very immersive. Particularly voice acting (in English) really stands out! Lovely voices. It is very easy to lose track of time, and that lead me to think there's not much content in the story. Seven chapters - six of which are story, last one being "conclusion" - do take up 5-6hrs. The one thing you can really influence is the conclusion chapter. Otherwise the story happens very linearly. As such, I'll let Eliza rest on my shelf for a year or three - I *might* replay it then, to again answer all the questions it presented me, but this year, it doesn't make sense to me to play more. Except for the solitaire, perhaps. If visual novels are not your genre, Eliza might change your view. I value Eliza really high, and will start checking visual novels in the future.