Losing You Grip

Large, highly complex and introspective game. You’re a fellow named Terry, in rehab for nicotine addiction, and the drug you’re put on sets you on an internal journey of sorts.

Nearly everything in the game functions on a symbolic level, and trying to unravel everything is challenging –there’s been no little debate about what everything means. Thematically rich, but also plenty of fun as a game –the puzzles are challenging but fair, on the whole. What’s notable about this is that, for the most part, the puzzles serve the purposes of the story rather than getting in the way of the story –the author manages to weave the plot into the obstacles to be overcome. The central relationship in the game is a puzzle in itself –much as the protagonist doesn’t fully understand the relationship, you the player spend most of the game trying to figure out the dynamics.

At two points in the game, the plot branches (in a sufficiently subtle way that you may not realize there was another choice), such that two lengthy sections of the game have two entirely separate paths through them (after which the paths rejoin). Complex, but thoroughly rewarding.