Test Subject: Synaptix by mkellygames
Playtime: 10 minutes
This made me want to talk about:
-
a short game with very of-the-moment concerns (i.e., everyone lives in a post-ai mid-topia, where the bare necessities of living are covered by universal basic income despite human labor rarely having economic value) [tangent, but if it comes to pass that ai makes most human labor value-less, I think everyone ending up able to survive on universal basic income is by far one of the better options. Let’s get to work on ensuring at least that, stat!]
-
I appreciated the way the game moved fast, made it easy to focus on the choices, and allowed streamlined exploration of the other branches through undo
-
the writing is clear and effective in telling the story, and there are some very good and specific observations about life (i.e., the line about trying to sign on a touch pad)
Notable line:
[after asking the human doctor a question]
My one fervent wish:
The endings felt a bit sudden, possibly because we first hear about each of the them only at the very end? (i.e., I don’t think we really hear about news media’s role in this world at all until you take the “go to the press” ending). I think if there had been a smidge of foreshadowing earlier (the player character has learned something from the media, the player character laments that some people are turning to nootropics to try to compete with AI, etc.) the endings might have felt more like an extension of the rest of the game.
Overall, a quick-moving story about technology in a not-that-distant future