Simogo, the developers of the superb
Year Walk, just released their new title Device 6. Because it literally just went live, I can't actually post reviews or, well, anything meaningful beyond Simogo's description of the game:
A surreal thriller in which the written word is your map, as well as your narrator.
DEVICE 6 plays with the conventions of games and literature, entwines story with geography and blends puzzle and novella, to draw players into an intriguing mystery of technology and neuroscience.
Anna wakes up in a castle on a remote island, with little recollection of how she got there. All she remembers is an unusually unpleasant doll...
Why are there two identical castles on the island? Who is the mysterious man in the bowler hat? And above all, what is the purpose of the tests Anna is put through?
Read, listen and peek into three-dimensional photographs to solve the bizarre mysteries of DEVICE 6.
and a
cryptic interview with the lead designer of the game, where he explains
The interplay between the game and the text was part of Simogo’s inspiration for Device 6. “A lot of games today want to present worlds in a very visual way, but with DEVICE 6 we want present a world in way that tickles the imagination in a way that books, or imagining how places look when you look on a map, do.”
I've only played a bit of it, but I'm really enjoying it so far. Formally, it reminds me a lot of House of Leaves, with ostentatious textual playfulness that actually impacts the way the narrative is told. You scroll through the text, as if it were a visual novel, while the pagination changes or provides cutouts that add visual representations of what the narrator sees as she tells her tale.
Which doesn't seem like a big deal, but the way it's executed is almost like a subversion of the dominant mode of the game, allowing you to glimpse things that should be--and are--just outside of your field of vision. There are also puzzles and questionnaires, though I'm not sure how they impact the narrative (if at all)
DEVICE 6 is up now on the App Store for $3.99. I realize it's a bit of a hard sell, but I'll update this OT with reviews and the like once they start hitting.
edit: reviews are in!
Eurogamer (9/10).
The dependable structure - the back and forth between travel and challenge as you burrow your way deeper into the narrative - provides some necessary orientation in such a strange and disarming game. It also allows Simogo to place its biggest mysteries outside of the moment-to-moment puzzling itself. Shifting from smirking puns at the creakiness of modern progression systems to a finale that's actually quietly devastating, Device 6 is designed to linger in the mind long after the last code has been cracked and the last sentence read. Spy stories - even traditional ones - often haunt their readers' dreams once they've been completed. It's only appropriate, really. Is that a final full-stop or a microdot? Is this the end of the affair or an invitation to go deeper?
PocketGamer (Gold).
While the navigation is daring and unique, the puzzles are far more traditional. They're the usual logic conundrums and riddles we've seen in games like The Room and Simogo's own Year Walk.
So you might come across a computer that can take a four-digit number, and you've got to scour the environment for possible passwords.
The clues for each puzzle might be hidden in the text, shown in the black and white images that flank the sentences, or even read out over gramophones and tape recorders.
But while they might be traditional, they are exceptionally well-made puzzles that require clever, multi-step solutions, a notepad, and some other hardware that we won't spoil.
They are some of the smartest puzzles since Cing's DS games - better than anything in Year Walk - and they'll make you feel like a genius when you finally figure out the answers.
Modojo (4.5/5).
The Good
Device 6 looks like nothing else - a maze of text where a single sentence will take you around corners, send you trailing back on yourself, and give handfuls of strange, interactive glimpses of the game's peculiar universe. The whole thing's a joy to look at, and well-designed puzzles make it a joy to play too, as you crack codes, hunt for secrets, and slowly reconstruct your own past.
The Bad
When the adventure's this exciting, you can't help but wish for more. Device 6 will keep you busy for an afternoon, but it will almost certainly leave you wanting more at the end of it all.
The Verdict
Simogo's come up with another unmissable game - an ingenious slice of puzzling adventure that's as imaginative as it is stylish. Whether you played Year Walk or not, you can't let this one pass you by.
AppSpy (5/5)
DEVICE 6 not only explores the boundaries of narrative storytelling, it also demonstrates the creative potential of touchscreen gaming. Though its subject matter may be bleak, the game's ambition and intelligence make it a joyous and truly singular experience.
Edge (9/10)
Simogo’s greatest triumph, perhaps, is to intensify the potency of the written word. In using its text both as narrative and as geography – and through its impressively restrained use of illustration and sound – it generates an almost unrivalled sense of place. It isn’t embarrassed to allow Device 6 to be a game when it needs to be, and yet it knows precisely when to let the story take over. The result is a sharp, striking mystery that is at once provocative, extraordinarily stylish and altogether essential.
And a special thanks to Tunesmith for the use of his graphics!
