Analogue: A Hate Story

Problem:

I liked this game so much I had to write a review.
I'm doing game reviews now?
What is this, some type of Japanese erotica?

Solution:

This post.
Apparently.
Nope, but Rule 34 probably applies to this as well.

Musings:

This game is unique and amazing.  I thought I might enjoy it, but not this much.  But before you go purchase it based on my glowing review, let's go over some things.

This is not erotica.  It's an animated e-book and everything that implies.

If you hate reading, you will hate this.
If you do not have patience, you will grow bored with it.
If you do not enjoy exploring people's stories, you will have no interest in the characters.
If you do not have dedicated time for this, you probably won't be able to take it in well.
If you have an aversion to Japanese style characters, you will think the main characters look dumb.
If you are really into Call of Duty or other AAA action games, this may not be for you.

As an aside, I am not a "cultural" person.  Some people on reddit will talk reverently of "experiencing" other culture in a deeply religious sort of way.  Kind of like visiting poor villages and mountains and exotic locations is some type of deeply fulfilling spiritual pilgrimage as long as it is done with a very expensive digital camera.

I am not one of these. I try not to be too culturally insensitive, but I really am not that interested in other people's cultures or food.  I try to respect them as much as possible, but I don't understand the excitement made around them by my fellow countrymen.  I can't do fish, any combination of rice/soy sauce/seaweed makes me sick to think about it, and most Thai dishes are offensive to my nose and stomach.  It's just not my thing, even though I have tried to get over them.

That long disclaimer aside, this game is still amazing.  I just have to figure out how to describe it well because animated e-book sounds like the children's ebooks for the iPad that have little charaters moving in the margins to entertain you as you read.  So maybe I should classify it as a point-and-click adventure game with no avatar to move around and a lot of text to read?

Or I'll just list you the awesome parts:

Getting to pretend to hack into an ancient spaceship.
Dealing with two detailed [and conflicting] AIs.
Discovering the history of a mini-civilization organically.

These may sound like some pretty thin gameplay mechanics, but they are done amazingly and the game is only about 5-6 hours long if you're a fast reader, so they stay fresh.  The AI interactions are amazing because at least to me, they felt like real people with dreams, desires, and failings.  The story that you uncover is very rich and deep, which is good because it's the focus of the gameplay.  The author, Christine Love, is an visual novelist, which explains why she was able to make such a strong showing in these areas.  I'm glad for the simple style, it works very well for the game and it allowed the creator to work within her areas of strength instead of pulling a AAA and trying to put some sort of shooting mechanic in just because that's exactly what every game needs.

Not saying that I would have complained if the game had let you come aboard in some limited way to walk around in a top-down 2D way to add a little RPG sort of variety, but this game is amazing for the simple indie title it is.

Hate Plus is the sequel which just came out a few days ago.  I haven't had a chance to play, but I really look forward to exploring this new story because Analogue: A Hate Story is the best kind of book.  It's not a game, it's like the reading experience you dreamed of.  The characters feel and are alive, you feel like the *earn* the story and are really searching for it, and there is some interaction with the actual world that really lets you imagine you are there.