Developer: Rail Slave Games
Publisher: KISS ltd
Platform: PC
Tested on: PC
Selfie: Sisters of the Amniotic Lens – Review
Sometimes, as a game reviewer, you get some pretty ‘weird’ games served to try out and I must say, those titles always succeed in leaving an impression one way or the other. Selfie: Sisters of the Amniotic Lens is certainly one of those unique and strange games and right of the bat, I can say that not everyone will like it. Even if you’re open-minded about trying out new things, Selfie might not be the experience you’re looking for.
Story
Just after booting up the game, you get greeted by a guy who looks to be some kind of news reporter and who tells you a bit more about the story of the Sisters of the Amniotic Lens. Apparently, the bodies of those sisters were found somewhere in a motel, heavily mutilated. The sisters believed to have found gateways to another dimension. Six members of the cult have been found dead as said before while now, as the guy in the intro so mysteriously says: the hunt is on for the seventh member.
Before starting the actual game, you’ll have to complete one task: write your deepest fears in a box on your screen and those thoughts/deeds will be put into a bottle. What? Not what you expected? Well, none of us expect something like that for a game to ask about. Anyways, after you’ve written down your most horrifying nightmares and sorrows, the game sets off.
You find yourself in a room, filled with flies buzzing around with the power to drive you nuts in a short time period. Looking around, you see the remains of what used to be a woman next to you and of course you wonder about it for a bit. The story is certainly a bit on the weird and rather confusing side but as you progress in the game, more information will be thrown at you which makes things more clear. It’s pretty fun to learn about what happened piece by piece and the narrative proves to be the game’s best aspect.
Graphics
Selfie is really not a game to play for the incredible graphics, far from it. Although the game is not very strong in the graphical department, it fits the general theme perfectly. Selfie has absolutely no interest in winning awards for the most epic looking video game in history and that attitude is what makes the lesser graphics not so big of a deal. Selfie primarily wants to be original and bring a message into the video game world (or so I believe).
As you will be experiencing the game in only 2 different area’s (the main room you’ll find yourself in the beginning and the galaxy level), there’s really not much to say else about the art style than that it’s an original but very simple one.
Sound
While you’re busy ‘playing’ the game, Selfie smoothens the mood with some pretty catching beats and music soundtracks. As sinister as the game might look and feel, the music makes it a bit more bearable to scan those annoying flies in the room (more about this in the gameplay section of this review).
Although the music is quite fitting, it gets old rather fast. Especially in the space part of the game, you’ll most likely want to put some music of your own on as the rather nagging song will become quite the annoyance after a while.
Gameplay
A fair warning before I talk a bit more about the game mechanics of Selfie. If you plan on trying the game out for yourself, you might want to skip this part as otherwise, you’ll rush through the game in no time. Finding out yourself what it is you’re supposed to do is part of the fun so try it out by yourself first before reading this section!
Talking about Selfie as it’s really a game is not the best way to approach it. Gameplay is nothing more than scanning flies in the beginning and shooting red dots and flies (again) in the ‘other’ dimension. If this sounds a bit hollow and empty than rest assured, you are not mistaken. As a game, Selfie is certainly not even worth the small fee the ‘game’ advertises for as you won’t find any satisfaction here on that part. Although the fly scanning can be somewhat challenging, it’s not something you want to do for hours on an end.
Luckily, Selfie is not only about the flies. If the player succeeds in scanning a set number of flies, the TV will jump on and then it’s a matter of cycling through channels until you find camera images coming from a camera in the room your character is stuck in. Clicking on that particular image will switch the screen to what appears to be some kind of space galaxy.
As you’re flying through space, you’ll see some weird shapes in the distance and if you look a bit more closely, you might notice some of the stars sparkle. That’s because they are not actually stars but bottles! Remember when I talked about the game asking about your inner thoughts? Well, those bottles represent the confessions of other players. After reading what’s in the bottle, you can choose to either condemn the other player to set them free. Condemning them will put their purse accounts back to zero while freeing them will often come paired with some of your funds transferring to the other player. You can gain more pounds by shooting other flies in space or by letting other players set you free. If you want, you can send a response to the other player’s bottled message and that’s about it for the MMO aspect of Selfie.
Essentially, the gameplay consists of shooting and scanning flies and replying to other player’s messages. At first, this might be somewhat enjoyable but after having to rinse and repeat the same levels over and over again, it’s becomes rather tedious to go through the fly fetish once more.
Conclusion
Selfie: Sisters of the Amniotic Lens is certainly not a game for everyone and as I say this, I must warn you: it’s not really a game at all. The story certainly sparks on interest at what happened exactly and the multiplayer aspect where you read other people’s writing is also an original game mechanic but the lack of any real (fun) gameplay, the monotonous songs and the repetitive nature make Selfie a ‘game’ for those who’d like something they have never played before. For other people, I’d suggest skipping this title.
Selfie: Sisters of the Amniotic Lens - Review,
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