This game is set in the far future,
where humanity has spread across several star systems. The main task
of the player is to find out what happened with a derelict spaceship
and its passengers. This job has been given to you by an organization
that archives space colonization history. The ship was one of the
first to leave Earth seeking other habitable worlds. Ships like these
were meant for travels spanning generations, and when you arrive you
soon find out that it has already been on a journey for several man
ages. Fleeting in space for thousands of years, it shows no sign of
life. You find out what took place by reading log entries stored in
the ship's computer systems and by talking to the ships artificial
intelligences. The visual style is manga inspired and there is very
little animation – the mimicry of the characters is instead shown
through still drawings. The drawings are nonetheless great.
The themes of the game are sexism and
the relationship between humans and technology. The society that is
described is extremely twofold. Through the ship logs you get an
insight into three high ranking families' game of power. The men hold
all political power, the women are instruments for giving birth and
bringing up heirs and their coming courtesans and wives. Many of the
logs are written by characters who have been raised under this social
system, so they don't question morale or ethics, as otherwise would
have been appropriate. But in between these entries you find some
people questioning such a divide and react by trying to escape the
required norm. One of these characters is called the Pale Bride. This
is the person whom I related the most to. Her background is different
from anyone else on the ship. This difference in background leads to
some interesting confrontations with the rest of the passengers. I
won't say much more about it, because that will ruin some of the
story, but there is gripping and intricate character development at
work here. My hat is off to Christine Love for fantastic writing. The
Pale Bride story made me feel deep sympathy. Love raises questions
about sex discrimination and freedom of speech, and gives the player
opportunity to express their opinion.
The game stars two artificial
intelligences (AI) that you can interact with. You interact by
showing them the logs and by answering if they indicate they have
something to say. The AIs are the only characters that are visually
represented in the game. They often share their views on the people
whom have written the logs, and I found their views affecting my own
understanding and opinion about what took place. If they ask you a
question, you will be given two choices. They will respond
differently depending on what you answer. You can also influence the
opinions of the AIs when your answer is given. All the log entries
are not available from the start (you actually have to power on the
ships batteries to get access to anything), and those you have access
to are randomly spread across the history of the ship. By showing an
AI an entry you may get access to more
entries. This way you slowly start putting the pieces together. The
jumps in time give the storytelling a distinctive touch. The names of
the inhabitants is in Korean, and you are early on given access to a
family tree that helps you sort out the names. That being said, the
names of all the women are mostly incomplete, since the family name
of a wife where the only name that were noted. Daughters were not
included.
About halfway into the game an incident
occurs which sees the game deviate from its ordinary game mechanics.
This brings a different kind of tension to the game, in the sense
that time becomes a factor you have to take into account. The way you
play through this short sequence is by typing commands into an old
school 80's style monitor. That's all fine, but then there's the
problem that this monitor doesn't display that many lines of text.
And when you type a command to display all the commands at your
disposal, that alone takes up half the screen. Next, you try some
commands to find out what they do, and you find out that they are not
relevant to what you're trying to accomplish. Now, the command index
might have scrolled out of view, so then you need to type in the
command to display the list again. This could have been avoided with
the use of a simple list displayed separately from the monitor. As
mentioned earlier, this is a brief part of the game. One that doesn't
keep it from becoming a great one. The sequence has its pluses, the
factor of time keeping you on your toes and the sudden realization
that you are indeed on board a dying starship. Oh, and the last part
of the sequence is a fantastic twist that I didn't see coming at all.
After you have been introduced to the
two AIs, you find out that they also have an opinion of each other,
and they offer different views on the inhabitants of the ship. This
is where the good stuff starts. With two AIs saying different things
and asking for your trust, you have to make up your own mind based on
the happenings described in the log entries and each of the AIs
comments to them. The game boasts multiple endings, but personally
I've only seen one. On a second playthrough, if taking other choices
throughout the game, I might have been told a different version of
what happened. But this is only guesses. It still adds to the replay
value.
Even though your original goal is to
figure out the fate the ship and its inhabitants only to file a
report to your employer, the player focus is shifted to the victims
of this oppressing regime. Through brilliant writing and surprisingly
human AIs reactions to what you read, this tragedy feels more and
more personal. After a while is doesn't feel like a mission (as
described in the company paper), instead you feel a need to have a
final say in the events.
The portrayal of AI in this game is
thought provoking and flirts with the roles and positions that AIs
may inhabit or even fill in the future. It poses a question as to how
we see artificial intelligence and what separates this form and the
organic form. I found myself from the start naturally skeptical as to
why the AIs wanted my trust. What value does it have for them? They
are merely an extension of the ships machines – are they not? What
value can be found in a button press?
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