Beyond the sea, the shelf drops out to the turquoise haze of the open ocean. I discover myself surrounded with golden-peaked columns aglow using the shimmering blossom of sun lit life. Intelligent green webs of twisted tendrils stretch from pillar to pillar, forming a writhing system of bridges for the feathery, fern-like animals who patrol and continue maintaining them. It’s really a magnificent, wonderful scene. But it exists mostly within my own imagination, its wonder shaped with a small number of single-sentence descriptions plus also a simple two-colour contour map. meetandfuckgame does so far with apparently so modest, appearing being a master class in prudent, chic story telling.
Dr. Ellery Vas is just a xenobiologist after in the wake of her companion who vanished while re searching extra terrestrial life over the sea world Gliese 667Cc. Stationed in her spouse left wing laboratory and equipped having an AI-controlled diving lawsuit, Vas explores the depths looking for replies. In a disarming inversion of their normal human-AI romance, you play with the AI; Vas sets the targets, often conferring together with you personally, nonetheless it is your work to plot her lessons, gather samples, and then run evaluations back into the laboratory.
The installation allows Vas room to breathe to get a personality. Since you direct her mysterious trip, she supplies irregular narration. She pauses to marvel at new arenas, thinks out loudly as she works through potential theories, and also periodically confides in you her own doubts and fears. Conversation might be sparse, and your capacity to react is limited by the bizarre no answer, nonetheless it truly is perhaps all of the more disturbing for this. The two of you are strangers at the start, however Vas’ wariness in displaying her inner most head to an AI slowly cleans away as she awakens, despite the reticence, that you just know her predicament–in the procedure unearthing a memorably multi-layered personality. It really is a friendship forged in aquatic isolation, one quiet lineup at one time.
Likewise there is a elegance to the general design as it communicates a great deal of information in very few words. The view of your travels is confined to a bathymetric chart wherever hydrographic features are attracted in blank lines and also specific factors of interest are clearly marked whenever you activate the local scanner. Vas is a assiduous Note Taker, along with her short prepared descriptions of every location attract these points into life within remarkably vibrant vogue. The Exotic vision unites efficiently with all the subtle colour changes of this mapthe hot greens of this shallows segue in to the rich blues and yellows of these deeper waters before committing solution to the blacks and reds of the darkest depths. Insert from the obscure, ambient hum of the sea and the gentle thrum of the diving suit’s propulsion motor as you shove off to some brand-new vacation spot, and also meetandfuckgame delivers a richly immersive audio-visual experience that amuses its spartan aesthetic. It has quite a accomplishment.
The minimalist construction extends to some interactions with the whole world. Scanning reveals the nearest nodes you can go to via the point-to-point transfer technique. In addition, it finds any life-forms that you can click onto own Vas analyze. Each exceptional encounter having a certain lifeform adds to her own observations until she’s able to correctly determine and catalogue it. In addition, there are specific samples to collect, frequently hidden in out-of-the-way corners of this map, so which result in the deep taxonomy with the submerged eco system and benefit time that it can take to monitor them all downagain.
All this is achieved via a interface that only needs to be played . Intriguingly unlabelled buttons, dials, switches, scopes, along with sliders do not therefore much load the display as energies it, teasing enigmatic works with perfect hip shape. Inconspicuous tutorial tips accelerate the dash when it’s appropriate to use each and every component, but there is plenty left that you decode. As Vas confronts the unknown inside her journey and has to speculate and experiment, testing her out hypotheses, you’re given an extremely tactile, emblematic interface and left to probe it until you finally in tuit how everything works. In lots of cases, the mysteries coincide; Vas’ seek out knowledge about the lifeforms she is restricting mirrors your rumination on the most useful means to proceed. Indeed, all throughout, the mechanics and topics of scientific and exploration procedure align and intertwine.
Though primarily a narrative-driven meetandfuckgame game, there is a light under current of source management flowing through each tune out of the bottom. Sampling and re-searching marine life gives you the ability to extract the oxygen and power you will need to maintain Vas’ diving suit on longer treks. Certain environmental hazards deplete those tools at a increased speed, however, while you are going to require a source of specific samples to advancement throughout differently inaccessible places, both scenarios serving to quietly nudge one to consider the modest inventory space as possible get ready each excursion. Despite the fact that failure here isn’t punishing–Vas will be pulled via back drone to base in the event that you let her come to an end of oxygenhaving to track your utilization of resources assembles tension and benefits the sense of trepidation since you possibly set a route into uncharted waters.
meetandfuckgame develops its own fundamental mysteries in professional style, drip-feeding its revelations at a manner that feels organic, and alerting one to inspect the corners of its own map in an sense it doesn’t really feel contrived. As you steadily learn more of exactly what Vas’ spouse was as much as on this odd world, and also you begin to understand humanity’s predicament, the puzzle builds into a confident conclusion–just one that satisfies yet remains aware that some questions are far more enticing if left unanswered. Inside this sense, its story echoes the restraint that runs throughout the entire meetandfuckgame game to provide a stylish, guaranteed, and completely absorbing experience that shows again and again again it is aware the best way to execute lots with apparently very little.