Merk's Review: Freedom

The draft of this review is below the dotted spoiler space. Just scroll down.

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A few other comments, now that I’ve looked at a couple other reviews…

I didn’t get stuck at the end, because “hug” is mapped to “kiss” and I almost always try to kiss every potentially attractive woman I encounter in interactive fiction.

Also, nobody else is suggesting that it might be a joke entry. I feel bad for even using the word, given that I don’t think there’s anything dishonest or misleading about the game’s premise, but…

Imagine if it was a joke entry, or some sort of small-scale social experiment. I mean, it’s dull as a game, and it was submitted to a competition where reviewers can be cranky and vitriolic about dull games. Yet the author reveals something very personal that could either completely change the tone of the review, or make the reviewer feel bad to find out the game’s purpose later.

The only part that didn’t seem to work smoothly for me was the grocery store scene. I don’t think the implementation of it was part of the game’s purpose, but it took a little more effort there. I knew to “buy groceries” but I also tried “pay for groceries” with no luck.

After reading the author note, after finishing the game once:

My honest gut reaction was wow: maybe I have social anxiety disorder. People are usually rude at groceries stores, inattentative at book stores, and madmen behind the wheel. And I think maybe that’s why the premise doesn’t work the way the author intended. The game doesn’t show how somebody with this disorder perceives the world. It just describes what seem to be ordinary situations, and unless you share this disorder, that’s not enough to put you in the protagonist’s place.

So can a premise like this work in a game? Other than the base, familiar emotions like fear and happiness, is it possible to demonstrate to a player what a certain unfamiliar state of mind feels like? Would the fact that it’s a game muffle the effect to too great an extent?

I don’t think I’ve seen this sort of thing attempted before. Cheiron made me feel like a clueless doctor wannabe, although I don’t think that was the intent. The Baron shocked me, but didn’t make me feel like

a child molester (and granted, I don’t think you were supposed to).

Maybe it would be easier to make a player feel like a vampire, because that’s unreal and full of possiblities. To succeed in demonstrating a disorder like the one in Freedom, though… I don’t know. Maybe it did need exaggeration, but as was pointed out in another review, it’s already exaggerated in your own mind if you have the disorder, probably making it difficult or impossible to recognize that these things don’t elicit panic or trepidation in most people.

I dunno, surely it can be okay to respect this person’s problems but still say their game sucks.