AardVarK Versus the Hype, by Truthcraze
Of all the tantalizing blurbs I scrolled through, I naturally gravitated most strongly to the one that promised a beat-up 1989 Toyota Celica. This probably speaks volumes to the quirks of my psychology, but let’s not dwell on that right now.
In some ways, AardVarK is about what I expected (and hoped for): a ludicrous, irreverent, action-packed teen comedy. Our plucky, disaffected young heroes are a motley crew. They are caught in that stage of life when defining oneself is an almost existential struggle - that stage when the excesses and contradictions of counterculture seem much more palatable than the prospect of conformity with an absurd status quo. Except, in this case, their psychological struggle is writ large as an actual existential threat posed by a murderously absurd mainstream.
In terms of technical sophistication, it surpassed my expectations with a fairly complex scheme of POV-switching and time-shifting. The puzzles were mostly easy and fun in a zany kind of way, and any difficulties I encountered were mainly due to me not reading a few key lines carefully enough.
I encountered several minor bugs and one fairly annoying one, but nothing game-breaking.
Somewhat more spoilery musings for the initiated:
I view AardVarK as a sort of abbreviated bildungsroman. It’s a story about adolescence and the struggle to become emotionally/socially mature, but not much (if any) actual maturation takes place - it’s just a snapshot of a point in the process. Confronted with an absurd world (one in which their peers have become zombified by evil soda), the heroes do what any teenager would do: stake out their own identities, insisting on self-expression by way of loud music, which will surely save the world.
It’s the sort of self-centric adolescent fantasy that just makes sense. The fact that the plot is designed in such a way that the fate of humanity itself hinges on some kids’ ability to play their garage music is perfectly evocative of the kind of overwrought conflict that classic teen drama is all about. It’s brilliant in concept.
The ending, I think, is the weakest part of the story. The author does a great job of building up tension and excitement for a hilariously convenient final confrontation. But then, when the player finally clears the final hurdle, the climactic moment is very brief, and while we can draw inferences about how things ultimately turned out for the protagonists, we never see any real closure for them. If they learned anything and grew as people, it’s not mentioned; or even if the ending is supposed to be pure power fantasy, it is subverted by having such a short, abruptly-described moment in which to appreciate the heroes’ triumph. If the final (pre-epilogue) scene were to be expanded upon for more of an emotional payoff, I believe it would take this story from good to excellent.