The Universal Robot (Assembled By Hex), by Agnieszka Trzaska
A satirical sci-fi scenario: you play a technician tasked with assembling a robot with which your boss threatens to replace you (entirely). This is a Twine game with parser spirit; it’s polished and thoroughly implemented. The puzzles were (for me) a nice level of challenge. They required thought, but never became overwhelming.
There’s plenty of dark humor in this story, although a feeling of hopelessness is somewhat tempered by the surprising degree of agency that the player is given in determining the ending. There’s a long list of endings with very divergent outcomes. I was satisfied to stop at uncovering 5/12 endings, but I didn’t exhaust all the apparent possibilities; this is a game that rewards experimentation.
Length: About an hour.
Play this if you like:
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Sci-fi anti-capitalist satire.
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Story-driven puzzles.
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Uncovering narrative branches through surprising interactions between inventory and environment.
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Games that blend parser-like game design with choice-based interface.
Tips: The inventory system is central to progressing to the game, but it took me a moment to realize how it worked. If you don’t wish to figure this out for yourself: clicking “Use” next to an item in your inventory will give you the option to apply it to objects or NPCs in the environment. “Combine” will enable you to use two items in your inventory on each other.