Gaming

Not released this year, but had been looking forward to AI: the Somnium Files. Played it not long after Christmas, and whilst the story was fine... I was sorely disappointed.

I was looking forward to it after playing the Zero Escape games (escape room visual novel games by the same devs - good puzzles, crazy twists etc.), and even more so because AI was advertised as a murder mystery where you dive into victims'/ suspects dreams. Figured you'd go searching for clues/ evidence... But nope. Instead it was mostly dive into dreams, and have to "trial & error" style fumble through picking different things to interact with whilst a timer ran out. I really found the core gameplay outside of the visual novel segments pretty damn bad... And worse yet, diving into dreams almost never actually helped to solve anything. More often than not, it actually led the main character to false conclusions, or down dead ends instead. 😬

There was one part where I thought I had an exciting "oh shit!" revelation, but instead they went down a much less satisfying route. >!Really felt like they missed a trick by not having the MC inadvertently jump timelines by altering events during people's dreams (similar to how Zero Escape handled/ explained all the different visual novel routes, & retaining impossible knowledge across timelines)... And instead the big twist was explained with look-alikes & mistaken identity.!<

Aside from all that, the game did have some heartfelt moments, and decent twists. There was plenty in the story that was handled well... But then the game would ruin it with out of place innuendos & "the MC is being a perv again" gags. Tonal whiplash was how some reviewers described it, and I have to agree. Worst of all, the very heartfelt, teary-eyes reunion at the game was completely ruined with a cringe-worthy song and dance routine. Literally every character, joining in with this "perfectly choreographed", badly written, badly sung finale'...

And seriously, I wish I was joking...