State of Mind

Dystopian future, limitless inspiration for games, movies and books. This game has more in common with movies than with other games. Gameplay is strongly focused on story. To me, it seams like they were strongly inspired by Dreamfall, in both story and game mood. If you want a proper adventure game with puzzles look for something else. Only playable parts of game are mini-games, which I would say are also the worst part of this game. They aren't much fun and do not make any sense. Also controls are a bit awkward.

This is a very solid and lovingly made experience. The story feels like one of the early cyberpunk fiction works (the initiated might find a direct reference to one of the classics in a signboard and read it as an early warning of what they are getting into). The stylized polygonated graphics is unusual, and I think it works well for this game. The acoustic atmosphere is beautiful, and the voice acting [English] is perfect. The characters are well developed and feel like live people, with their own desires and imperfections. This game is listed in Adventure and Action genres, but in fact it is closer to an interactive story. There is not much freedom of choice, the freedom that exists is mostly aesthetic. The puzzles and minigames are not difficult -- they are intended not as a challenge, but as an immersion device. On the writing side, I found two things somewhat wanting (or insufficiently motivated in-game), for 2010's, namely the copy vs move in mind uploading and the question of what is real and what isn't. However this is probably a consequence of choosing early cyberpunk as a genre model, so I can live with that. For an example of a deeper exploration of these issues, check out Soma. State of Mind, still, is a solid work in its own right. Bottom line: State of Mind may disappoint those who expect challenge as a main ingredient in their games. However for those looking for a good story, lifelike characters, and overall experience, this title will be well worth the time and the money.

Well made from start to finish. Has an intersting and engaging story with some lovely characters. The locations are aesthetic and the game does more than a decent job of making you feel you are part of a larger world (perhaps the news could be updated more - this isn't to harsh a critque, as there are still many news stories to listent to). If you like sci-fi and you enjoyed or - as me - love games such as Dreamfall then you will probably really like this one. Contrary to popular opinion I am not of the belief that games such as this one "should just be a movie". I don't know about you, but I don't watch movies where people walk slowly around to look, and read things - occasioanlly for extended periods of time - but I do very much enjoy being the one doing the walking and looknig around, occationally interacting with objects (this game has some interesting object interactions at times).

‘State of Mind’ has the ingredients for a great cyberpunk game, but they never come together in a way to make it one. The developers lacked restraint in using them properly to turn ‘State of Mind’ into a focused experience. By the end, I was still wondering what they were trying to say about transhumanism, and the impact of AI on humanity and society. I was initially absorbed by the deliberate pacing of the story as it built toward the first climax. Yet, the ideas presented during the first part never came together cohesively. A few plot points that were introduced were either rushed to conclusion, or never properly resolved. I was surprised when the game just ended without satisfactory resolutions to the heroes’ journeys. In this game, you mainly control protagonists Richard Nolan and Adam Newman, whose fates are intertwined in ways they didn’t expect. Richard is an unlikeable character, and his main mission is to find his missing wife and son. Yet, I never understood his motivation for finding them, and the game is so unfocused that much of it is spent doing other things. I actually found Adam’s incentives to be more believable. It’s not a good thing when the secondary protagonist outshines the primary. Throughout the game, I tried to redeem Richard by improving his relationships with the supporting cast, but the ending never delivered the payoff. It seemed like Richard, in spite of his trials, couldn’t evolve as a character. Narratively, that’s unacceptable for a broken protagonist like him. This brings me to the most annoying part of the game: why was I also playing as a prostitute, an android, and Richard’s son at various points? It added nothing to Richard and Adam’s growth and journey, and only made the game drag on. If anything, ‘State of Mind’ is a great looking game. Too bad that it’s a beautiful mess that could have been a great game if the ideas were more focused, the gameplay more honed in, and the character development better thought out.

The graphics are really cool, stilized, but the game doesn't offer much, other than that. The gameplay is too dull, you just walk in small places, browse through unisnpired dialogs and watches a cliche story. There are some puzzles, true, but they are too simple, not fun and doesn't add anything to the experience. It is like they are there just to justify this product as a game, and not to entertain the player. It really didn't feel like a real game, more like a canned product, replicating old formulas, not even derivative, and very shallow.