There is an interesting surge of new games in the obscure genre called 'interactive drama'. Where its not quite a video game as you know, but more a movie that you can partake in and have choices which impact the story in a profound way. The story can be played co op, and most of the game is watching very high graphic appealing 'cutscenes' with thrilling quicktimes thrown in, and just one mistake of these can drastically change the course of the game. People can die and entire sequences can be skipped.
When playing co op, frequently you both will be experiencing completely different parts of the game. It is constantly swapping out which characters you and your friend are playing as, and they can be in a totally different forced part of the game than you, only to end up routing back around to meet up with you through some twist or series of events. So really it's all about the story, presentation, and writing here.
There is a simple dialogue option system where you get 2-4 options at any given time. You get a real sense that you are drastically changing the game with these, and a lot of the writing is witty and funny.
Well the premise is rather simple, you're a group on a boat(s) trying to discover some secret about a mysterious 'gold'. It's a minimal but effective setup. The majority of the game is spent listening to dialogue and watching scripted scenes, which is not a bad thing in this scenario. You need to change your mindset less like you're playing a video game, but more like you're 'watching' a movie with your friend that you can both manipulate and affect the outcome of. With this in mind its pretty entertaining.
There are sections where it takes you out of the 'movie' where it goes third person with fixed camera angles and you have to walk around to progress. These moments are ok, and this is where the real 'gameplay' is. For the most part, these segments consist of simply walking forward in a narrow line to progress to the next cutscene, albeit extremely slowly and clunky to give a more cinematic vibe. It can work against its self though, and start to feel dull and monotonous just because of the movement speed. There are usually some optional rooms you can enter to look at some objects, most of which are notes with flavor text about the circumstance.
So I would say its a top experience to have with a co op partner in the sense of sharing a thrilling horror movie. I will complain a bit in that all of the horror moments really are just cheap jump scares. There is no combat or anything like that, or any really threatening moments of gameplay.
It's all about choices and their outcome, dialogue, and quicktime events. Most of the quicktime events are extremely short 0.5ms ~ 1second; so you can easily mess them up if you're not hyper focused, which in turn drastically changes the outcome of the game, so this can be frustrating if you have the mindset of just relaxing and watching. You need to be on the edge of your seat ready to hyper press QTE if you want good outcomes.
It can be really bullshit though. For example there was a moment where I briefly lost connection to my partner, in the middle of a quick time event, I regained connection, but I failed the quicktime event - And a character was permanently dead. Could not revert, could not undo. Just like that the campaign is 'ruined'. Was quite a bummer especially because it wasn't my fault.
For sure the strong point of this game is its graphics / presentation. I don't really need to explain this in writing, just one look at the facial animations or graphics should be enough to impress. This really makes you immersed in the campaign so turn off the lights and jump in type feeling.
Lastly, I will note the game ended rather awkwardly and abruptly, it kind of gives many hints to whats actually going on, but then ends without really detailing anything. You can play through the game again to get different endings, and there is an additional mode that was added after the game came out called 'Curators mode' which has additional scenes, characters, and outcomes, but after 1 playthrough the ending feels awkward and abrupt. It does seem like a perfect game to play through again, with a new friend just as a cool cooperative cinematic experience to have even with people who don't like video games. It can be beaten in just one evening at only 3 hours long, so why not.
7/10
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