Eliza

Eliza is a visual novel. Basically all the player needs to do is press a "next" -button, though that might be presented as, for example, a sentence for the main character will say. Sometimes you can read multiple emails to gain info on the world, but there really aren't any choice in how to progress, it's just clicking to make the play move forward. It's a style of gameplay which one either likes or doesn't and Eliza will not change that. It's abut the story and the atmosphere. And i really, really liked those two aspects! Eliza has interesting thoughts about where the technological advancement is taking us and feels really relevant, but also the stories of people and their everyday problems were kind of touching. The people felt real. It addresses topics that many of us have, like loneliness, not knowing what to do in life etc. While Eliza (the game) is not a tool for someone to help them process their own problems, it did make an impact and i'm sure it will linger on me for a while. Also the voice acting and music were great, The art was a bit bland, but it served the game well. There were few scenes where it felt like the more music or images were missing, but it didn't bother much. I liked the pacing and i liked how the story turned out. Without going to spoilers, i do want to say that this is not a high-stakes story with twists and turns and grand results. But that exactly was why i liked it so much. Eliza took about 5 hours to complete which i did in a single day. There isn't much replay value, though you can have an effect on the outcome. I do recommend the game to anyone with even a slight intrest in the topics of modern technology or mental health and to fans of visual novels in general. For people with a curiosity towards visual novels this is a good place to start.

Jump into the shoes of a young woman who's going to be a passive operator (a 'proxy', someone who rigidly sticks to the words churned out by a computer) for a novel AI-driven counseling system for mental well-being. Meet the patients, with their varied and nuanced and well-acted sets of psychological problems, and feel the impotence in helping them as all you can do is reading what the AI tells you to. Then see the whole story grow to different proportions as you learn of the protagonist's past, meet with other characters and be overwhelmed with doubts, Psychotherapy, artificial intelligences, the ethical trappings of working in a high-tech, corporate environment, the issue of our privacy exchanged for services, the philosophy that drives it all... This visual novel touches so many issues, both in subtle and deep ways, that it's difficult that you won't be engaged by the ideas it exposes and by how they are exposed. Recommended.

...if you have any experience with anxiety, depression, therapy and mental health stuff, and/or are interested in how technology is barging it's way into every aspect of our lives, check out Eliza. I found the dialogue alarmingly relatable, it's clear a lot of research, if not plenty of personal experience, went into this. An unexpected change of direction for Zachtronics, but a successful one.

Eliza is very philosophical since it questions human suffering and its necessity - if there is any - but also Artificial Intelligence and some of the questions surrounding it. The art is very nice. Not necessarily special in any way since it's semi-realistic, but it conveys the mood. Characters are distinct and look like actual people, which is only enhanced by the excellent voice acting. The player character Evelyn, while relatable, is actually a bit bland; she has gone and is still going through some stuff which might explain that, but as much as I hate to say it, her voice delivery made the character the most boring one in the game. Gameplay is what you'd expect from a Visual Novel: Mostly dialogue with some choices to make. I'm not entirely sure how many of those (the last big one aside) actually make a difference to the story itself, but they do change scenes and responses and are varied enough that the player can bring their own personality into the game to some extent. It's a bit difficult to "judge" this game. The questions it asks are nothing new, but the presentation is very well done and the dilemma the player character finds herself in is an interesting one since there doesn't seem to be a definitive right or wrong choice. Again, it's quite philosophical, so your decisions depend on your own reasoning, and even then you might not be entirely sure about any of them. There are several different endings, I've seen all of them, and not one of them seemed completely "right". I'd recommend Eliza if you like thought-provoking stuff. It's an interesting personal journey with links to something much greater, and some of the questions the game asks can simply not be answered outside of personal preference.