Content Warning: This game discusses an investigation of child sexual abuse in a way that is (imo) not thoroughly conveyed by its existing content warning, so I am adding that here up front. As such, this response also discusses that (in the section Feedback/Recommendations/Questions)
28 | BIG FISH
28 | BIG FISH
by: Binggang Zhuo
Progress:
- I completed this game, reaching the “true ending” in around 25 minutes.
Things I Appreciated:
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The element I thought was most engaging about this piece was the surprise Lovecraftian/supernatural twist which builds over the course of the piece as you visit the various locations. The setting of a strange town was a good choice for this kind of story. I liked the gradual intensification of this aspect of the piece.
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While there wasn’t that much choice ultimately in the path you take, I liked some of the interactive elements where you return to a location that you’ve been before with a new item or new information, and there is colored text that indicates what has changed. This directs the player’s attention appropriately, making it relatively seamless to travel through the different locations.
Feedback/Recommendations/Questions:
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Re: the content warnings, I can empathize with the challenge of writing thorough/accurate content warnings because I find it hard to sum up what in my own work might be warn-worthy content, how specific to be, etc. It’s like having to write an abstract of a paper, only it’s an abstract of the potentially disturbing things in a fictional world that you are immersed in writing, a task I find it hard to wrap my head around at times. However, in this case, I think the topics discussed could’ve been listed out in more detail. I think it’s good to be more specific if you can, so that players that want/need content warnings aren’t surprised in a bad way by what’s in there even after reading those warnings. Speaking from my perspective alone, I was surprised by what was in this piece based on the content warnings that I read.
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There are some ominous references throughout the piece about the protagonist, e.g., “The repetitive in-and-out motions [of using a toothbrush] bring some lewd thoughts to your mind.”; “You found a few things that shouldn’t be here under the [victim’s] bed. This led you to some despicable thoughts.”; and the protagonist’s impulse to confess to the crime at the end as one of the options (which turns out to be a joke ending). At the true end of the game, the protagonist invites the victim’s sister Sarah to live with him. Because of the comments I quoted leading up to this ending, it certainly gives the impression that Sarah is in significant danger from the protagonist, but the narrative presents the ending in a neutral/positive light that seems to be unconscious of that. So it makes me really wonder about the reasons for the toothbrushing/look under the bed lines? Am I missing some important context here, I wonder, and misreading this character?
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This piece could use some light edits for formatting. For instance, a link says “Enter Chapter 3” when other links refer to a specific geographic location. I think this could be changed to “West Bank” to be more in line with the styling of the other links. Similarly, I believe the character “Fleur” is sometimes called “Fuller,” (I’m pretty sure these are the same person), so I’d recommend picking one of those names to use consistently.
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I would like to see a unique aspect of this piece developed more. The sheriff accompanies you (the reporter) to many locations throughout the game, which I think is uncommon for these types of games—to have two characters traveling together through the majority of the scenes. You could really take advantage of this feature of the game by including more dialogue commentary between the two characters in each area to enrich the atmosphere of the piece. Especially given that the reporter is an outsider, and the sheriff is more familiar with the area, I feel like this is a ripe opportunity to develop their characterization much more than currently exists in the piece.
What I learned about IF writing/game design:
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I think this is a good example of how a mystery that doesn’t give a lot of choice can still be developed in an interesting way. I thought that even though your character kind of auto-solves the mystery, there still was enough creativity/intrigue in the plot to sustain interest. So what I take away from that is: sometimes just allowing the player to read the clues in a somewhat nonlinear way rather than actively solving the mystery can work as an approach, if the mystery is inherently interesting enough.
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This was a good case study of an escalation from the very grounded and ordinary (you are just at home starting off on this journey) to something much more supernatural and odd. I thought that was built up well with worldbuilding details that start off a little strange, but get progressively harder to ignore as you start to understand how central they are to the plot. I think these details stand out because the start of the story is so grounded by comparison—a good note on how to set up for a shift like this.
Quote:
- “The middle-aged man in a suit begins to explain the origin of humans to you. The gist is that in ancient times, alien spaceships crashed in Antarctica, they modified Earth’s organisms to ensure food supply, and humans were born in this process. [Look at the table] You see a copy of ‘The H. P. Lovecraft Collection’ next to the man.” (I thought this was a funny buildup to looking at the table and seeing the explanation for his comments.)
Lasting Memorable Moment:
- Crocodile Jesus. Need I say more?