Event[0] (Video Game)

Ted Hentschke   |  

Oct 18, 2016

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Developed by Ocelot Society

Available on PC through Steam

Suitable for ages 13+

It’s pretty rare that I’d venture to call an indie title “brave.” There’s a lot of new, weird ideas out there. Many of them push the boundary of what can be considered a game. It’s admirable to be different, but it isn’t inherently ballsy. To earn the Ted Hentschke Badge of the Badass, you need to do something really difficult. Event[0] is a game controlled entirely by your text input commands with a computer. It’s nothing new, old text adventures did that. But it is incredibly difficult. I think The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy game had like eight zillion pages of text or something. Think about that next time you’re whining about your 20 page term paper due in 12 hours. Take some Adderall and crank that shit out like an adult.

I’m excited, because my time as a millennial has finally paid off. I know at least a dozen people who all tried to make their own text adventure with “reactive dialogue.” The idea was that the AI would take what you say, analyze keywords, and put out a result that made the game feel alive. Great example, Don’t Shit Your Pants. As amazing as that game was, it was decidedly small in scope. Trying to make realistic actions and reactions for a whole game is far more complicated. Of the people I know that have tried to make such a game, exactly zero have completed it.

Complex plot webs are hard, yo.

You’ll pick your origin, motivation, attitude, and even gender identification before blasting off. Regardless of your choices, you are selected for an expedition to Jupiter’s most popular moon, Europa. On your way there, disaster strikes, and you are ejected from the ship while the rest of the crew are rendered into space dust. Bummer. Lucky for you, there’s a Nautilus class recreational ship adrift directly in your course. How fortunate! Or was it…? The plot thickens…

What if my motivation is that I want to walk around an abandoned spaceship while an AI with abandonment issues questions if I really like them?

Walking through the hallways of the ship, you’ll find Kaizen cooperative only to a point. Want to walk through a door? Well, ask nicely. Want to find a code to a door? Get ready to explore a number of logs to find a hint. Kaizen also isn’t always willing to just go along with your commands. At times, you’ll need persistence to convince him to do what you want. It all sounds cumbersome, but it’s pretty entertaining. Finding out the exact command Kaizen needs is ultimately fun. It’s a puzzle for sure, but one with enough leeway to not feel unfair. Say door, and Kaizen will list the doors you can interact with. Stumble long enough, and Kaizen will hint at a previously unknown command. It makes you think in classic adventure logic, and I for one welcome the challenge.

As the game goes on, Kaizen’s display becomes progressively more glithcy. It’s a bit discomforting, given the fact that he’s in charge of keeping the airlocks closed.

The simple commands are one thing, but the game also has to tell a story. This is more complicated than just landing on keywords. You can’t very well just stop the exposition until the player finds the exact phrase you’re looking for without it feeling clunky. So there are a number of times the game just pretends like what you are saying makes sense. At one point I was just typing in “balls” to keep the plot moving. Which, to be fair, is a level of roleplay that perfectly fits me.

Heh.

That’s all I really want to say about Event[0]. It’s an obviously flawed game that I really liked. It would be impossible for me to recommend it without acknowledging the shortcomings. And yet, I wholeheartedly do. It’s easy to point out the problems, but that would be missing the forest for the trees. I don’t think everyone will love it, but people looking for something different will certainly find that.