Forsaken Denizen by C.E.J. Pacian
Playtime: 1 hour 56 minutes (to main ending)
The one with: a post-apocalyptic urban setting and a crack-shot PC
Probably the most video-game inflected of the games I’ve played so far. This is not my genre, but I definitely saw some shooter elements. To start: we shoot a lot. Also: ammo is limited but available by searching the map, limited save points, inventory restrictions (and the game tracks what you have in each hand separately), power-ups via special ammo, there’s patrolling mobs (here meaning NPCs that move around and can be attacked) that sometimes chase you, the PC can lose health but can get it back through power-ups. Another video game element is the sort of cinematic area descriptions—the creepy giant tree sucking energy out of the city I could definitely picture in concept art somewhere.
I also really liked that Dor gets different bonuses from wearing different outfits, which was a fun bit of self-expression and also practical.
(Sad note that, as often seems to happen to me, the transcript got messed up [because I used save and restore?] so I’m mostly relying on my memory here).
The game makes very good use of the shooter-elements I mentioned above. The PC is enjoyably competent, we explore the map for resources and figure out how to unlock areas. The game does a really good job keeping players “on the rails” by providing hints through the error messages and through conversation with the hologram if you need it. And I LOVE the choice to display, right there in the inventory, the intended command that works with each item in your inventory. Really reduced guess-the-verbing.
In general the game is tuned relatively easy, which I think helps create a kinetic feeling with forward momentum. It takes some effort to die and the provided resources are generous. Although there’s a decent number of mobs, most are skippable (in that as long as you keep walking they don’t catch up to you).
I did use the walkthrough in the end sequence. This was probably a somewhat less than idea experience, but I really wanted to finish within 2 hours. (I think finishing on my own was possible, but would have required more “look at this place I have been before and consider what is different” than I had patience for in the moment.)
The IF structure is interesting in that there’s a distinct narrator (Cath) who is different than the PC (Dor). (At the beginning I thought maybe Cath was haunting Dor, but actually it seems like she can just see her all the time. If the mechanism for that was explained, I missed it.) This provides some interesting narrative benefits—for example, Cath has an entertaining narrative voice which we get to enjoy, although from what we see (and filtered through the fact that Dor is trying to act on, err, my ideas) Dor is a bit more straightforward. I enjoyed Dor and Cath both as characters, and they had a cute-and-decidedly-untreacley romance. (Also this didn’t fit anywhere else but huge fan of the name “Alizarine Road,” using a banger word I have only heard in the context of paint.)
The plot feels of-the-moment, with a lot of “critique of late-stage capitalism” elements. The apocalypse is the result of creditors trying to recoup their investment from collateralized assets (i.e., the entire planet and populace??) There’s a lot of discussion of jobs that require people to expose themselves to shadow corruption, the main way presented to resist all of this is to . . . connect with a different corporation.
I had a very good time with this, it’s just really well executed, a solid chunk of entertainment. Probably my favorite scene is the slapstick “wait for the elevator in this extremely dangerous place” sequence—I could hear in my head the “ding” sound effect that would accompany the elevator finally arriving in a movie.
Two miscellaneous thought that are not really pluses or minuses:
(a) at one point I became convinced I had softlocked myself (pretty sure I was wrong based on something I realized later) and replayed about 20 minutes of the game, so it would probably take most people less time. This was when it won’t let you go up the elevator without a silver bullet, which I was out of because I shot the Viscount, but I also missed a room elsewhere. That silver bullet, by the way, is of course TRANSPARENTLY UNNECESSARY–
(b) Based on other reviews, I think a lot of the expected value of this game is in the replaying. There’s not going to be a LOT of time for in the 2 hour window for anyone, and was none for me.
I also would have loved if the end-game point system was revealed earlier. I was mildly making efforts not to kill the mobs (I don’t know what these things are! Are they . . . sentient? Did they used to be people? I’m sure gonna feel bad if I find a way to fix them later but instead I killed a bunch just because the game gave me a gun!) so I felt vaguely annoyed at the end when that was a scoring penalty. Although if I had time to replay presumably I wouldn’t have cared.
A few things I would have liked to see explored more:
- I would have been interested in seeing more exploration of the narrator / PC dichotomy. Conceptually, there’s something interesting going on in the mix of who among me / Cath / Dor is “responsible” for Dor doing things. For example, I recall at least one point where each *vetoed* the player’s instructions (as I recall, if you try the command “reload gun” or something similar, Cath will effectively refuse to pass that along, telling you that Dor knows more about guns; and as I recall I once tried to take a nice-to-Cath conversational option, which the game didn’t object to, but Dor blew on past and said something else).
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It’s fine as is, but I would have loved if there were plot elements that put Dor and Cath in opposition or made the player decide if Dor was going to support Cath’s ideas or not, if there was a plot-relevant instance of Dor rejecting player input, etc.
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I wouldn’t have minded more lore or interaction with the NPCs, who were fascinating. (Maybe some of this is in the re-plays?). Can I introduce Saint and Zras and see how they get along? Are these people I’m killing mutant versions of Cath’s relatives? Etc.
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This is perhaps related to the fact that I felt pretty rushed at the ending and was in the walkthrough. But some of the ending seemed to come out of nowhere / not build in a satisfying way on the prior gameplay. (I take it there was some desire to give like a “we need support networks to thrive” message, but I think that could be accomplished in a way that felt more like it build on earlier parts).
| Front matter | ||
|---|---|---|
| Could better set the table for the game | Successfully sets the table for the game | Successfully sets the table for the game PLUS |
I am on my knees begging for more of a description than: “(A text-only survival horror.)”
I will say I also agree with those who felt that “survival horror” is not quite the genre. Again, this is not my wheelhouse but when I think of a survival horror game I’m expecting something more like a soulslikeETA: I wasn’t familiar with any specific meaning of “survival horror” going in, but those words made me expect an experience where I would feel the PC’s life is constantly in danger and it’s difficult to keep them alive. This felt more like a horror shooter where the PC is OP relative to the mobs and the environment, and it wasn’t particularly hard to survive. But perhaps I’m misunderstanding the genre.
Overall, a gleamingly executed, wild action ride featuring two entertaining characters