Developer: MidBoss, LLC,
Publisher: MidBoss, LLC, AGM PLAYISM
Platform: PC, Nintendo Switch
Tested on: Switch
2064: Read Only Memories INTEGRAL – Review
In a world where human augmentation through cybernetic enhancements or DNA editing becomes readily available to the general public, humans began to stray from their roots. Though some cannot keep up with the current pace, believing ROMs are leading humans away to a place they cannot return from. Calling themselves The Human Revolution, their goal is to halt this renaissance of the (no longer) human world, though their effort is futile, as we come to find out, when Turing is switched on for the first time. Now with truly sentient robots within humanity’s grasp, what will they do to further their cause?
Story
Now that we have the setting covered, let’s talk story. Turing, the sentient-Turing test compliant robot, was created, but his creator gets kidnapped. When you wake up, what you think will just be a normal day quickly devolves into a frantic search for your friend aided by a sentient robot with the personality of a young child. Your search will lead you into a plot of kidnapping in order to suppress progress, and lead you past a number of characters all with different backstories.
A large part of the story is centered around the different characters, who are all in some way shape or form part of a minority group. This makes them all unique, interesting, and naturally likable. But the game does use it a little too much to the point of being preachy. When everybody in your story is trans-something, be that gender, race, or else, it loses the power of that person being part of a minority and undermines the point it is trying to make. Having to design such a cast of characters also makes it hard to make any coherent interwoven story out of the bigger picture.
Graphics
In the future of 2064, with technological advancements left and right, Neo San Francisco looks exactly like you’d expect. Like a futuristic version of any major metropolis, neon signs are back, and the city is full of colors. 2064: ROM features some really cool set pieces, with dive bars, seedy apartment complexes and spacious penthouse apartments. The whole game is played as through a window in a modern computer monitor giving us the illusion as though you’re looking through a pair of virtual reality goggles perhaps. The game projects subtitles and choices permanently at the bottom of your screen, and your menu options like save and inventory are stuck on the right of the screen disguised as buttons on the machine you’re viewing the world through. Overall, the game’s presentation is quite interesting, as the world is just endlessly interesting to look at, and Turing’s facial expressions are quite adorable to look at.
Sound
One of the other strengths of this title, is its audio and voice work. All lines but the player’s own inner monologue are voiced, and the game is a lot better for it. The dialogue is obviously written with a lot of care, and the voice lines are done with as much attention. If you can imagine yourself being the main character during the dialogues, it really feels like you’re talking to a real person. The soundtrack (which is available in the extras menu, or for a small fee on steam) also fits the game’s background extremely well. But the electronic beats are a little upbeat and happy for the storyline of the game itself. With the story unfolding as a thriller, the happy chip-tune-y music, no matter how good, feels a little misplaced.
Gameplay
Point and click adventures such as 2064: Rean Only Memories INTEGRAL usually have a very simple premise. You’re presented with an environment, with which you can interact in a limited sense. Due to the control scheme, it’s somewhat difficult to properly implement all of the gameplay elements of a point and click. With the thumb sticks you can point at things on the screen, but that also means that with minor fiddling on each screen you can find the ‘hidden’ items that you need to progress that are usually harder to find in traditional mouse driven games. And this is where this title starts to fall apart: the game is too easy. With none of the items really hidden on the screens, and some reasonably easy inventory item puzzles, there isn’t a lot of difficulty in this game. Because you’re listening to so many individual stories for each of the characters as well as the larger picture, it becomes a chore to read all the dialogue but you need to listen to all of it to get any subtle hints, so it becomes harder and harder to play as you go. With point and clicks, usually the humor relieves some of that, rewarding you with small little nuggets of fun throughout the story, but those are also sparse.
Conclusion
2064: Read Only Memories INTEGRAL stands or falls with the player’s willingness to stick with the dialogue. The individual storylines are good, and the game is doing its best to write interesting, inclusive characters. It’s just too bad it detracts from the story as a whole. If you read the description of this game and it has piqued your interest it is certainly worth getting and sitting through, but if you’ve read this review and you’re on the fence on purchasing this title, it is safe to skip over this one.
2064: Read Only Memories INTEGRAL - Review,
Related Items
1 Comment
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
[…] couple of years ago, one of our fellow reviewers took a closer look at 2064: Read Only Memories, an acclaimed point-and-click/visual novel hybrid. The game was successful enough to warrant a […]