Okay so Proximate. I knew it would be short, but I wasn't quite aware it would be a one-night type game. Anyway.
The movement mechanics are the most apparent thing, and I think it was super cool. Taking your vision of the actual environment, and replacing it with some malformed idea of utility is such a cool idea for gameplay. Limiting how you can move around to just a single word, and the confidence level in that word allows for so much uncertainty and horror. the [Woman 42%, Minced beef 40%, Ketchup 92%] is pretty clearly, uhh, bad news. But [Spine, 17%] is so unsettling. It's next to apparently a mannequin, but what is wrong that it's only 17%? And now I'm wracking my brain trying to think of anything that could maybe look like that? It uses it's gameplay to push it's idea of "companies bad" really well. And the sound design helps with that too! It's good, I noticed it was good. It's not crazy wild or inventive or anything, but it made a few scenes for me.
The visor got pitched in such a 'AI tech bro' type way and I was not thrilled to deal with it just on that alone, but then I started walking around and yeah, it sucks. It sucks in a really interesting mechanical way though, like it gets better over time, especially as you start to learn the layouts of the rooms. I'm nearly always terrible at navigating in games, I spend about half my time in the map sometimes, so when the map got taken away I was half-convinced I'd have to drop the game. But the room layouts are simple enough that it's hard to get snagged on things (co-working I hate you), and the visor will reliably recognize the doors you need to go through, so it all works out. The stupid dog update was at once incredible funny and terrifying. Hearing noises around you and suddenly having your vision taken from you just after having learned someone else like you died here.
This is an issue I had with it, is the text sizes. On PC it asked me to use a controller, so I figured I put it on the TV. And the gameplay sections are fine like that, but the text sizes while reading documents were hard for me to read. I was leaning forward and back, stretching my neck hard depending on what part of the game I was in. I tried to go into options to see if I could adjust that, but literally none of the menu buttons worked. I was able to make it work, but if this were a longer game I would've had to figure something else out. There were different ways to interact with the game I have access to, but if there's a options button in the menu I should be able to press it?
The narrative is pretty simple, it's a short game, it has to be. But it hit really hard. I love Ella and Willow's relationship, obviously it's not like, good, but I found it super engaging. The writing between them is really good, they sound like real people flirting and the humor feels real. I was unaware that there was going to be any queerness in the game, and then it's actually kinda totally about that? Big W. A lot of Ella's dialogue felt super vivid to me. The she panics after rejection and spirals, the way she can't figure out what the problem is and is grasping at straws. I'm trans too, and while I don't have romantic experiences while I've been aware I'm trans, it felt super intense and accurate.
But forcing you to go back to the console after each room is a great idea. It means that you will end up seeing things over and over in each room, and will gather lots of environmental storytelling that way. By the time you reach the end and read the final files, you see where each person died, and you realize that you've been passing by them the whole time. It re-contextualizes tons of stuff that you've seen bit by bit. Early in the game, I noticed how much more had been recycled than normal and my stomach dropped, and maybe that felt better at the end? I don't know really. The disgust as you connect to "Man, 90-something%", hearing his breathing, now fully aware of what it is.
I don't think I was ever really scared of the monster at all, tons. Like when I was dropped into co-working, and the monster was in there, I felt tense, but only because I thought it was going to be a chase and I didn't know how to deal with that. Then I realized that when we make eye contact I can just jiggle the controller sticks and then continue as I was, and it fell away. But that also goes to show how effective the rest of the game is at creeping me out, because I felt reluctant to keep going at times (in good ways for this game lol) and I felt my stomach drop a few times.
Great game, absolutely play it. League tonight?