Event[0]

Event[0] is an exploration / adventure game. There are a few puzzles, none of which is difficult, save for the issue of having to second-guess the designers. I played through to the last puzzle, only to find the final note (with a randomly generated code) had floated off into a wall - dodgy physics, anyone? I couldn't be bothered to replay to watch the ending scenes. The graphics engine does struggle a fair bit - may be a problem with a lack of optimisation? Received this free with another game on promotion. I wouldn't have paid for it otherwise.

I playthe game through in 3h and 10 seconds and that's a bit too short. As much as I appreachiate the love that the developers clearly invested, I wished the story line would have been longer. Also I wished there where more possibillities in the game. More different things that could happen. It's a bit too linear. But I loved the Linux insiders. ;)

I think this will be satisfying for some players. It looks good, but the downside is that (on my PC) it was slow to load, jerky, and sometimes froze. First impressions were confusing. 1. Choose "new game", then it asks if you want to load it: no, I want to start a NEW game. There's nothing saved yet, so nothing to load. 2. The intro shows you approaching a smallish spaceship. There is definitely not a star between you and the ship. Yet, as you accelerate, the game uses the effect of "hyperspace" stars blurring to lines - used in films to represent passing through whole star systems. It's as if you've passed thousands of solar systems whilst moving a mile. 3. I had no context at the start, but was asked to choose if I use a singular or plural pronoun - no idea what it meant, if it was me or the game's character being referred to, what the implications were. It might have been better to give the backstory then ask those questions (maybe on a fake application form) so we have some context. Not that it seemed to have relevance to anything at the start. 4. The intro says it is 2012, yet mentions organisations and events I haven't heard of. Alternate timeline? 5. Weird controls - you use the mouse buttons to move. They disabled arrow key movement so it feels weird, and there is no way to do something as simple as sidestep. If you're looking at a screen and need to position to read it better, you have to shuffle back and forth with mouse buttons. 7. Logs mention commands like "stereo on" or "bed_constr.sh" - but they do nothing when typed. 8. As the cursor passes over things, it gives a brief description. BUT it's irritatingly slow. First it fills a circle, then draws a box, then flickers in a description. Do that hundreds of times and it is frustrating. 9. Low interaction - the fridge is jammed, but you can't yank it to see if that works. You're told you don't know what album a vinyl record is (because it is face down) - in reality you could just turn it over.

event[0] is an enthralling dark scifi mystery marred by some of the worst system optimization I've ever seen. It took me days of fiddling to get this game even to load on my gaming PC; weirdly I had better luck on my ancient Macbook Air. Load times are absurd even with a solid state hard drive, and you can easily hit the five minute mark without knowing whether the game has frozen. That said, there's nothing else quite like it. Exploring a derelict space station manned by an intelligent, conversational AI – with text parser dialogue! – is worth putting up with technical nonsense for. It's just a shame you have to.

While this is a short game (you'll knock it over in a few hours), the experience is a really human and beautiful one. The core mechanic of the game (the AI interface and the brilliantly programmed AI program the developers have written) is surprisingly advanced, yet contextually able to shurg off any complex failures of form. This is a quiet and introspective game. More active than a walking simulator, but anyone with an interest in soft and deliberate gaming with a philosophic edge should definitely enjoy this. I can see me revisiting this every year or so for many years to come