6 | LGG | DARK WATERS ON THE NIGHT SHIFT
6 | LGG | DARK WATERS ON THE NIGHT SHIFT
by: dsherwood
Progress:
- I reached the end of the game in about 21 minutes. I spent a few more minutes going back to check other branches, so I probably spent around 26 minutes total in the game.
Engagement with Horror Genre:
- I thought this was an interesting blend between like, an industrial ghost story and a tale of succubus-style demonic temptation. (Poor Lucciana, she should’ve waited for a shift where a straight guy was working
) It also has slightly comic book-y features. At the beginning, when we learn that Marcus fell into a vat of acid I thought, oh no, did he have some kind of Batman villain original story? Lucciana is a somewhat campy villain in the sense that she just kind of shows up, chews the scenery, and watches with mild amusement as I flailed around trying to help the ghost and wasted a significant amount of municipal tap water in the process. The best horror imagery I thought was in the oppressive heat inside the factory as it takes on hellish qualities. Overall, I thought the piece cohered well and these genre elements fit together in a satisfying way.
Things I Appreciated:
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One of the first things I noticed that I absolutely loved was the color-coded dialogue scheme. The colors chosen were very thematically appropriate, and I thought the gold/orange/red dialogue looked great together, with the blue looking “out of place” in a way that makes sense given what is going on with Marcus.
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The puzzles required some thought but were pretty forgiving. I was never able to get myself stuck, and while the remote controls were confusing, I was able to gradually understand what I was doing with until the end when I was managing it seamlessly. Overall, I thought it presented a decent challenge that was appropriate to the scope of the game and didn’t feel overwhelming.
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I really enjoyed the water treatment plant setting and the attention to detail there. For instance, when I tried to drain the water and was told it would take 9 days given the massive volume of water. I also really enjoyed how the factory changed as Lucciana manifested supernatural obstacles like glowing red ectoplasm to get in my way. It created a good sense of escalation in the intensity of the game even though mechanically, it was forgiving.
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I liked the presence of the map and how it helped me better conceptualize the space that I was in. There’s a kind of awkwardness in games like this where the protagonist character would be super familiar with navigation but the player isn’t (there’s no way that Oscar would have struggled to find his way around the water treatment plant the way I did), but I thought the map and other text cues (like the hook showing up when it was moved to the right place) really helped smooth out the disjuncture between the protagonist’s knowledge and the player’s knowledge.
Miscellaneous Comments:
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Something I noticed while playing is that there are a few dialogue options that are formatted with a drop-down menu (talking to Lucciana on the phone) while most other dialogue options are formatted as a list of clickable hyperlinks. I wondered why those dialogue options were formatted differently—unless the dropdown menu is structurally necessary for some reason, it looks out of place to me (not matching the otherwise quite pleasing color scheme.)
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After finishing the game, having sided with Marcus after the initial meeting with Lucciana, I went back to see what happens if you choose to side with Lucciana. The main reason I was curious is that the majority of the game is a puzzle avoiding the supernatural obstacles that Lucciana creates in the factory, so I wondered how the game would adapt that if you sided with her. It turns out that you just… can’t. This is an interesting case study because in my first playthrough, the illusion of choice worked seamlessly for me. I never questioned that my choices mattered, so the game was very successful in that, if you choose the “obviously correct” dialogue options, the story makes sense and flows well. However, when I tried to play from the perspective of pretending I was straight (or bi/pan I guess) and super into Lucciana despite all the cues telling me it was a bad idea, the narrative kind of swatted me away from doing that. This renewed attention to the dialogue revealed that most of the dialogue choices are very similar. So I just thought it was interesting—the game did a great job making me feel like I was choosing what to do, until I actually checked, at which point it’s a bit less satisfying.
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I was slightly disoriented at the start. You’re given a task list that starts with “Visit control room” and the only choice in the beginning list that sounds like that is “Control Panel,” which you’re then told is wrong. I next looked at the map, and “Control Panel” isn’t on it. I was able to get the hang of things pretty quickly (and later when I had puzzle/navigation elements to figure out), so no real harm done, but I am pointing it out because I think it’s good to think about what is happening in the very first moments of a game before the player has any real sense of what they are doing yet and consider whether there is a way to more effectively direct the player’s action at the start.
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Minor formatting: This piece was very cleanly edited, but the vestige of chemistry knowledge that still possesses me wants me to recommend that “H2sO4” should typically formatted using subscripts as H₂SO₄
What I learned about IF writing/game design:
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The puzzle feature I most appreciated was the remote control. It appears overwhelming at first because of the options, but is designed well enough that as a player, I can test out different combinations of settings and see how the game responds. In a few minutes, I went from hating the remote’s apparently complexity, to zooming around the factory with it like it was natural.
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The illusion of choice, as discussed above, is fascinating here. The game played seamlessly the first time through (And playing with the intent to write about it is a bit unnatural—If I weren’t specifically writing this response, I probably wouldn’t have gone back to check other branches and wouldn’t have questioned the choices much). For instance, I am just now recalling what felt like a consequential choice (due to the inventory limit) of a wrench vs. a rope. In hindsight, I wonder if the wrench (the option I didn’t choose) would have also worked, meaning that the player will always be given the sense that they picked the “correct” option when faced with this choice. At the time, I felt some pressure to choose what I thought was correct because of the imposed inventory limit, so I think that’s an interesting approach to game design. It’s a good strategy to get the player to feel involved without having to create endless fractal branches of every choice you offer them, but comes at the risk of disappointment if the player becomes overly aware of the linearity.
Memorable Moment:
- When I tried to go down some stairs and was faced with a rising tide of glowing red ectoplasm. You really don’t see that every day. Water treatment is serious business!