It rarely happens that a computer game is a work of art in the highest sense of the word. Even less often authors of such a project are newcomers in their industry. However, it seems that in the case of Sublustrum, we are dealing with double exception to the general rule. Beginning studio Phantomery Interactive I managed to create an amazing quest. The game really makes an impression and leaves a fingerprint in the soul, which is usually the privilege of books, films, musical compositions or paintings. In a sense of the word, Sublustrum combines all these types of arts.
The world that built. Who?
Adventure is conducted in the first person, so looking at the protagonist will not work. But there will be, what to see around. After all, we have to gradually plunge into very strange, bewitching and, sometimes frightening parallel worlds. And it all starts simple, almost everyday. A physicor-physician dies under mysterious circumstances, leaving his brother (in the sense, our invisible character) inherited his house with all the contents. Upon closer examination of our home, it turns out that the scientist, apparently, had a very roof at the end of his life. The wires are stretched throughout the house, the floor is scattered in some places, the books, drawings and theoretical calculations are scattered in disorder. And in the middle of the living room there is a very strange device resembling a booth. The deceased in his diaries and gramophone records calls the device "capsule" and claims that with its help you can penetrate the parallel "flickering" world. In this "behind -the -grade" space becomes possible to meet with dead relatives, childhood memories. True, in return, alternative reality breaks down the personality and gradually seizes it.
Obviously, in the process of one of the experiments, the inventor died. It is clear that, despite his brother’s request, in no case do not try to repeat the experiments of his predecessor, our hero will do everything possible to fulfill the opposite. And he will fall into an amazingly sad, oppressive, surreal world, filled with fragments, fragments, stairs leading to nowhere, as well as unlimited loneliness. This is how the plot tie looks at first glance. But, after the complete passage of the game, the impression remains that everything was not at all like. Or there was nothing at all?
Sublustrum refers to games that you want to interpret and decipher. After all, in the final, we do not get a denouement or an answer. Only even more questions. Such ambiguity of Advenchur, of course, owes the many small, seemingly details that do not fit into the main storyline. Which is even more surprising – after the completion of the passage, not an ordinary annoying thought arises "Here is another toy ended", And the feeling of catharsis, purification. And at the same time – deep longing.
Puzzles are complex, sometimes even very, but, in general, quite in the spirit The Myst or Beyond the Time. The fact that they are not here – the main thing becomes clear almost immediately. Although there are no complaints about the logic or goodness of the tasks – it is quite in the mainstream. But the storyline is built masterfully, according to all the laws of drama. We are gradually moving from a sad mood with a slight mystical raid through a feeling of truly painful splitting of the hero’s consciousness and the surrounding space to a feeling of complete despair and horror, after which it begins "Counting countdown" – to a lonely but harmonious world and final reassurance. Perhaps it would be worth a parallel with the purge, and the path of the protagonist is characterized as a dagger? The words of the supposedly deceased professor about the death of his brother in childhood are brought to this thought. So who died? And who is our character? The answers to these questions will be found on their own.
Memory of Tarkovsky
Sublustrum atmosphere captures and completely subordinates to itself from the very first minutes of the game. In a strange, surreal world, you have to unconditionally believe. Far from the creation of a special aura plays a far from the last role. Dreary – this is the right word that can be characterized. The sound design is flawlessly corresponds to the plot and, in many ways, determines the psychological perception of the game. The visual part seems to be one of the creator of the Creator "Solaris" And "Stalker". Gloomy, desert rooms and landscapes, an abundance of gray and green tones in the color scheme, constantly muffled lighting is perfectly supplemented "The effect of the old film". Which, by the way, can be given several interpretations. On the one hand, everything that happens with us is precisely dated – 1916. And an inconspicuous note with "Prologue", The game arising before the start of the game is made in the style. So the stylization for the old cinema is understandable. On the other hand, the trembling of the screen can be perceived as a kind of sign "flickering world". Perhaps we are already in a parallel, afterlife dimension from the very beginning of the game? The general atmosphere of mystery is complemented by changes taking place with paintings and photographs. If at first, respectable families with children look at us from the walls, then the further, the more disturbing irreal landscapes are in their places, as if emanating from a terrible sleep. On the radio you can hear the poem Akhmatova here and there, the song of Vertinsky. Another striking effect of the effect is a ghost that occurs literally for a moment and only from a certain angle. With repeated attempts to see a ghost in the same place, there is usually no result. There is a feeling of mystical fear, as if we really had either seen, or it seemed.
Numerous books, drawings and diary entries of the professor cannot be ignored. Each text fragment that comes across the path was created with the entire possible degree of study – both material background and the literary part. In the botanical encyclopedia, in addition to the properties of the plant of interest to us, there will be a detailed description of another flower for the same letter that has nothing to do with anything. All magazines of the deceased researcher are greatly voiced. Perhaps the only element knocking out of the general canvas is a modern font in books and notes.
If you turn
Of course, you can’t do without a spoon of tar. Firstly, not very "smart" The cursor in the form of a small circle does not allow accurate clicks. You can click on the subject or next to it – the result will be the same. But the camera is spinning as you like. Secondly, the abundance of pixelhanting is slightly annoyed, especially in dark and low-color interiors. Often the desired item has to be sought for a very long time. The transitions from the screen to the screen are not very convenient, since it is not always clear where exactly we will go. And sharp white flashes at every turn slightly blind.
But this is all – trifles and nonsense in comparison with the main. Beginning domestic developers managed to create not just a solid Adventure, but a sign project, which will undoubtedly enter the Golden Fund of the genre.
Pros: unique, fascinating atmosphere;interesting puzzles;Confused plot.
Cons: not the most convenient management;Capricate camera.