The Final Question

by

David Whyld

Review: C. Henshaw

Genre: Horror

Platform: Adrift 4

Download: http://www.shadowvault.net/games/intro.zip

1. Does it set the scene?
The Final Question starts off with a dialogue between two conspirators, although you don’t know what they are conspiring about until the 3rd or 4th paragraph. The dialogue sets the scene well – two personalities are in league over something, but a certain friction is also present. There is a bit of a hiccough with the very first sentence though – Markham’s ‘The question… is whether or not you will really go through with it or not.’ This wording set me up to expect some comedy element, silly dialogue or something. But no – read further and the impression is that this story is actually quite serious. Luckily that first line is forgotten in the continuation of the dialogue.

The opening is all about mood – the character’s mood (a scientist about to self test a Machine of immortality) and the game’s mood (self-reflective, a bit macho, and with anyone else I’d say gearing for surreal, but having played a few other games by David, I wouldn’t be surprised to see some gritty realism).

I have to admit that by the beginning of game play I was having a strong sense of déjà vu – the premise so far was very similar to Unravelling God in which a driven professor of science chases immortality, and whose name is Markson. So this in itself gave me some preconceptions of what this game would entail. Sure enough – at a certain point there is a flashback to a scene of the PC, Anton, in a hospital bed. Then we move forward again to Anton’s study, where (unsurprisingly like Markson’s house) it is described as a reflection of Anton’s personality and lifestyle.

Despite strange feelings of having read this before, this intro does a pretty decent job of setting up the back-story, getting the player involved in the character, and arousing interest in the plot. Passages from books like The Theory of Immortality give further weight to the interests and aims of Anton’s experiment. The very ending, Anton’s dramatic plunge into… immortality? Something, anyway... rounds off the introduction and made me think – Ah, here’s where the game really starts.

2. Is it well implemented?
In general, this game is well put together, with lots of text broken up by waitkey commands, which are an excellent way to keep you reading – put in a pause at a particularly interesting junction in dialogue, or at a cliff-hanger, and you’ve got the player (or me at least) hooked.

Game play isn’t an issue much in this game, most of the introduction is back-story and working up to the cliffhanger at the end of the prologue – when Anton enters the Machine. The countdown (a real countdown) to entering the machine gives the player time to study the surroundings, although the description of the room could have been a bit more coherent (you can only examine the Machine and the cables). I was happy to see that PC description was implemented, and you could look at Markham even though he wasn’t there (as a remembered description by the PC).

In the study, the descriptions fall a bit short – walls, floor and door are mentioned in the room description, but you can’t examine them (you can however examine the carpet). There’s not much to do in the study except read passages from the books mentioned above, which are interesting, but once you’ve read them, you sort of stand there, waiting for something to happen. There are a lot of things you can’t do – open the door, open the curtains (and thus look out the window), light the fireplace, drink anything in the drinks cabinet, and while you can open the drawer in the desk, there’s nothing in it (and you can’t remember if you ever put anything in it). Okay, so this room is for reading books only. ‘Take books’ or ‘take a book’ comes back with ‘Sorry. That is not a command used in this adventure. Try something else.’ But I’ve already tried everything else!

Aha! I’d missed that last book title at the end of the line. Story progresses to the end.

3. Do I want more?
Yes, as long as Anton doesn’t end up mimicking Markson too much. I’d like to see some really surreal situations, something unique and fascinating, after that great build up. Unravelling God is one of my favourite ADRIFT games, so it’s not a bad one to imitate. If the writing can hold up to its former example, then this is set to be one of the better games I’ve played in quite a while.

Score (each out of 10):
Scene setting: 8
Implementation: 7
Appetite whettage: 8
Bonus points: 2 for the best prologue in the comp
Total: 25 (should have a pretty long shelf-life)

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