This is a pretty good little conspiracy and if followed sequentially you get a taste of what's coming in day 1, get a glimpse of the end in day 2, and in day 3 you see it from the conspiracy side. It's a sad little tale where really, no one is happy and the "heroes" lose. I liked that there's not really a big event that's the cause; wheels were in motion before the logs you start reading, and you feel those wheel get a little oiling during the course of events, then turn some more. There's no magic gas or anything behind it all.

The problem is it's less of a game than Analogue. You have enough power over the three days for every log, every single one. So why make me pick? It's completely pointless, you may as well just have fed them to me in a set order. In the original you had a log percentage and you felt like you were investigating, unlocking new avenues as you passed logs to your AI companion. There's none of that there, you unlock the next six logs, read them, then repeat with the next six and so on until you run out of power. There's no reason not to read them in sequential order.

There's also a lack of variety. You had the terminal in Analogue to mix things up a little, plus the bit with the reactor added a little drama to the proceedings. Here it's just so... bland. You read logs, then shut down. Repeat for three days.

There isn't a climax to the story either. You just run out of logs. Contrast that to Analogue where you find out why the Pale Bride doesn't speak, or why everyone on the ship is dead.

It isn't helped that Hyun-ae's route is so unchallenging. There's no conflict, no drama, no tension. How can a relationship survive between someone in a screen and someone in the physical world? Won't the investigator eventually leave her? ♥♥♥♥ that, here's a message about AI bodies to completely dissolve any potential for dramatic tension. The opportunity is also completely missed to draw parallels between your relationship and that of Mute and her security lieutenants, the way she had seen them come and go. What happened when you died and Hyun-ae lived on? Nope, nothing. What about charges against her for her actions on the ship? Nope, answered, no tension. What about her being part of the contract and thus taken from you? Ignored.

Hyun-ae and the story are just completely disconnected from one another, and the new log format doesn't help. She doesn't make any substantive contributions to the narrative, just little one liners here and there, generally along the lines of "harsh" or some such.

I even felt the music wasn't as good this time around.

I hope and pray that when I do it with Mute further down the line that it will be better, because there's someone with a more personal investment in events. There's also that achievement for reading all the logs again on day 3 with her, which would suggest she reviews them in a new light.

I should be interested in the replay, but I can't get enthused. In Analogue I didn't need to re-read logs I still remembered, I could pass them straight to the AI to get the new content. You can't do that here, and I'm not sure I can face the idea of slowly... scrolling... through... every... log... again. It's a game designed to be replayed which isn't designed to be replayed. Or played at all really.

The game really only does one thing better and that's that it ties the side characters more tightly into the story. In Analogue you could know nothing about the Smiths and it wouldn't change a thing, but here all those people provide a window into how society was changing, and the impact it had on people.

I come out the end of this really disappointed. There's a good story underneath it all, but it misses every opportunity to be more.

This is a pretty good little conspiracy and if followed sequentially you get a taste of what's coming in day 1, get a glimpse of the end in day 2, and in day 3 you see it from the conspiracy side. It's a sad little tale where really, no one is happy and the "heroes" lose. I liked that there's not really a big event that's the cause; wheels were in motion before the logs you start reading, and you feel those wheel get a little oiling during the course of events, then turn some more. There's no magic gas or anything behind it all. The problem is it's less of a game than Analogue. You have enough power over the three days for every log, every single one. So why make me pick? It's completely pointless, you may as well just have fed them to me in a set order. In the original you had a log percentage and you felt like you were investigating, unlocking new avenues as you passed logs to your AI companion. There's none of that there, you unlock the next six logs, read them, then repeat with the next six and so on until you run out of power. There's no reason not to read them in sequential order. There's also a lack of variety. You had the terminal in Analogue to mix things up a little, plus the bit with the reactor added a little drama to the proceedings. Here it's just so... bland. You read logs, then shut down. Repeat for three days. There isn't a climax to the story either. You just run out of logs. Contrast that to Analogue where you find out why the Pale Bride doesn't speak, or why everyone on the ship is dead. It isn't helped that Hyun-ae's route is so unchallenging. There's no conflict, no drama, no tension. How can a relationship survive between someone in a screen and someone in the physical world? Won't the investigator eventually leave her? Fuck that, here's a message about AI bodies to completely dissolve any potential for dramatic tension. The opportunity is also completely missed to draw parallels between your relationship and that of Mute and her security lieutenants, the way she had seen them come and go. What happened when you died and Hyun-ae lived on? Nope, nothing. What about charges against her for her actions on the ship? Nope, answered, no tension. What about her being part of the contract and thus taken from you? Ignored. Hyun-ae and the story are just completely disconnected from one another, and the new log format doesn't help. She doesn't make any substantive contributions to the narrative, just little one liners here and there, generally along the lines of "harsh" or some such. I even felt the music wasn't as good this time around. I hope and pray that when I do it with Mute further down the line that it will be better, because there's someone with a more personal investment in events. There's also that achievement for reading all the logs again on day 3 with her, which would suggest she reviews them in a new light. I should be interested in the replay, but I can't get enthused. In Analogue I didn't need to re-read logs I still remembered, I could pass them straight to the AI to get the new content. You can't do that here, and I'm not sure I can face the idea of slowly... scrolling... through... every... log... again. It's a game designed to be replayed which isn't designed to be replayed. Or played at all really. The game really only does one thing better and that's that it ties the side characters more tightly into the story. In Analogue you could know nothing about the Smiths and it wouldn't change a thing, but here all those people provide a window into how society was changing, and the impact it had on people. I come out the end of this really disappointed. There's a good story underneath it all, but it misses every opportunity to be more.