Brilliant, original, smart, entertaining, hilarious, meaningful. Time well spent! The Truman Show of video games? Maybe! Have fun!

The best thing about the game is the story but the ending is not the best.
I wish they made the game a little longer and maybe gave the option to decide what to do in the end.

I was already spoiled on the plot of this game before buying it. I wasn't a huge fan, but it should have been easy to look past that, plus gameplay looked kind of cool. Well, "knowing" something and actually experiencing it are two completely different things.

I don't want to give any spoilers because "story" (and I use the term loosely) is all this game has. Let's just say that there is no conclusion, nor resolution. The story takes an incredibly cynical view of the world and plays that out to completion. Maybe some people can enjoy that, but it left me feeling dirty, and not in a good way. This is the last time I'm taking Yahtzee's recommendation on a video game.

But more practically, the game looks like ass. Crude way of saying it, but it does. And I don't mean the art style. That sort of "Cunist Oban: Star Racers" is perfectly fine. No it's the game's technical quality which is absolutely awful. Low-resolution textures abound, low-poly models are everywhere, the animations are abominable. This feels like a mobile phone game which got direct-ported to PC. I don't need games to melt my video card into slag, but I'd at least like for them to not look like a student project.

The game also plays awful. It's split into sidescroller and first person sections. The side-scroller sections are tolerable, borrowing a little from Inside here and there. But the controls are stiff, the animations are clumsy and so, so, SO much time is spent just holding forward while the game talks at me. There are a few puzzles to do with manipulating background objects and those are... acceptable.

But then there are the third-person sections. Those are absolutely intolerable. They're all puzzles with a character who moves glacially slow, and somehow with a good half-second's worth of input delay. There are puzzles in those, but to call them "primitive" would be an understatement. I genuinely don't know why those sections exist, considering they're just... not fun.

The game started feeling like a slog for me about half-way through, when the bottom fell from under the core narrative. I managed to reach the end purely on the strength of the gameplay, but that too was made less interesting since there were no more puzzles past that point. Just running, and the running isn't very good. I can't in good conscience recommend this title, because the ending feels contrived, rushed and incredibly unsatisfying.

Buying this game was a mistake. Hopefully, it's a mistake I'll learn from.

American Arcadia is a short, well execute narrative in the vein of The Truman Show, seeing its protagonist, Trevor attempt to escape from the faux world of Arcadia.

The 1970s aesthetic - and the beautiful colors draped over it - give much the world an interesting tone. And this is taken further by the solid display of voice acting behind a fascinating set of characters that will deliver a fun set of twists.

When interacting with Trevor, the game is largely a 2.5D platformer. When interacting with Angela, it is in first person. This perspective variety would be interesting enough, there are a couple points where they manage to mix the perspective in interesting ways I can't recall seeing elsewhere off the top of my head.

I can't say the gameplay itself is terribly exciting. There is the slight thrill of some chase scenes I suppose, but, it is not as though there is combat or anything, So if that's what you're looking for, this may not appeal. May even feel a bit slow or drag for you in places. But the lack of action didn't bother me much. The narrative kept me invested for what, again, was a relatively short game anyway.

If you've got a few hours to kill, I think American Arcadia is well worth it.

Good story, great voice acting, interesting level design. It was fascinating and entertaining the whole game. If you are into short, interesting indie games, this is a gem you don't wanna miss!

loved it.

brilliant great

Excellent gameplay, and a very interesting and engaging storyline.

Great game, go in without looking up anything about the story.

Lowpoly The Truman Show, all things considered, even though the final twist is obvious, it is quite enjoyable.