Ever since seeing Ghost in the Shell as a kid, I’ve had an obsession with cyberpunk. Dystopian futures, androids, body augmentation, VR….man, that’s the stuff of my dreams. Needless to say when Erik recommended Read Only Memories, a game by MidBoss, featuring all of the above and more, I absolutely could not resist dropping the $15 on it and I was not disappointed. Read Only Memories was worth every penny, but it also wasn’t everything that it could have been. It’s wonderful when a movie or game is everything we expect, but in this case, I can’t help but wish it had surprised me more instead of choosing to play it safe. Regardless of this, Read Only Memories is a great game and has a lot to offer. Audio/Visual Upon first booting up the game, you are inundated with gorgeous and nostalgic inducing 16-bit style graphics. This aesthetic may not be for everyone, but for those that like it, it’s well executed and brings a lot of charm to the experience. The low fidelity nature of the visuals can make the interface clunky at times as it’s not always easy to make out what you’re looking at (especially for really small things) but those instances are infrequent and are easily resolved by choosing “look” to get a brief description of the object. All-in-all the visuals are stylish and really bring a lot of personality to the game. This nostalgic visual style is complemented with a tight 80’s synth inspired soundtrack by 2 Mello that provides an atmospheric backdrop to the locations and a sense of personality to the characters you meet during your journey. The music rarely feels like a bad fit however at times it is more understated than I would have liked, as the overall vibe is very mellow throughout. One funny note though, I found that some of the tracks would not have sounded out-of-place in a classic Sonic game... To read the rest of the review visit: http://www.nerdfit.com/2016/04/15/read-only-memories-review/
