I know this is a walking simulator but there wasn't enough in the environment to make it interesting. You spend half the game going between your apartment and work. Later in the game there are a couple of larger locations but there's nothing really there to interact with. It's not really immersive at all.
I also couldn't sympathise with any of the characters. The two main playable characters are just jerks and annoying. Richard Nolan is like a cut-price Tesco Gordon Freeman.
I liked some of the puzzles but they were too easy.
The game does try to have some big Themes and Messages about technology etc but it seemed unoriginal.
Also... UNSKIPPABLE end credits?? They went for about 20 minutes.
The visuals and rendering engine, I have no troubles with - it's a design choice, and a good one for the mood it tries to set.
But as a game, it's pretty awful. The movement controls are jerky, the interaction items feel forced, and slow. You click your way through a story, but in an uncomfortable way.
I've got to say, and I am serious about this: most shooters have a better way of conveying what little story they have, than this "game". It might work in another medium, as a visual novel, maybe written story or animated movie - but sorry, as a game, this is a complete failure.
Can't recommend. Still, a second star for story, originality, and visuals.
State of Mind is all about one thing: The Atmosphere. With its captivating story (despite a few plot holes), environments and themes reminiscent of Blade Runner, The Fifth Element, I Robot or Deus Ex and a great fitting soundtrack it creates a very engaging mood and it just makes you want to know what happens next. Also, with its mostly relaxed pace and simple mechanics (mostly you're just walking around and clicking active objects and NPCs to progress further) it was surprisingly relaxing experience (despite a few slightly disturbing themes and moments), nice when you feel like taking a break from action packed titles where you constantly fight for your survival or even "hardcore" adventure/puzzle games where you can get stuck for a long time, unable to progress any further.
State of Mind may be a little too simplistic and it's true that it lacks a lot in the terms of actual gameplay - puzzles are not fun or challenging (some are outright annoying and tedious), there are only few decisions your characters can make along the way (and most of them don't matter anyway), you cannot die or make a mistake. It's very linear, with rather clunky controls, and it could do with some more polish to iron out slight technical issues (if you start a dialogue with someone without turning their way first, your character will happily have the conversation over their shoulder or even with their back to the NPC, sometimes NPCs talk to you as if you're standing right next to them even though they're actually across the room/area and the game also froze and stopped responding twice during my gameplay, forcing me to kill it through the task manager - which isn't too bad, considering I probably spent well over 10 hrs with it and the autosaves are quite frequent so I didn't have to replay a long segment - but it was still a little annoying).
Without these shortcomings, it could have been AMAZING game. With them, it's "only" good. Still well worth around 10 € if you can get it on sale.
That's not a game, should have a category for that kind of "game" there isn't much to do so far just click on what is highlight to make the story go forward... it's might be interresting if that's what you wanna "play"
State of Mind boasts a colorful and flawed set of characters, a relatively well-told story, and some dystopian food for thought. As a piece of interactive fiction I give it an A+. Unfortunately, the game part itself is almost completely on rails with very limited exploration of one's environment. Nary a puzzle is seen throughout where every decision is almost always spelled out, and the only true gamey parts that do exist are some really bland and braindead turret-shooting/bot-control sections of all things.
So, not bad but it could have been so much more.
