EMPORIUM

A very insubstantial and boring game where all you do is walk in a straight line through static rooms for a mind-numbingly long amount of time.

We're cast in the role of a young boy, wandering through a strange set of abstract environments as we keep running into and conversing with an older man who may or may not in fact be ourselves. Aesthetically, [i] EMPORIUM[/i] is certainly striking, what with its unusual isometric perspective and starkly muted colour palette: unfortunately, I found myself bouncing off this one without being entirely sure of why. I think it's the writing style as much as anything, really - everything comes across as so cold and abstract in a way that definitely feels intentional, but also makes it difficult not to feel emotionally detached from everything going on, and well, if your game is so hinged upon its story over everything else then what do you have without that connection? This extends to the choices we get in the dialogues, which I again found overly cryptic and obtuse, even if I still managed to get a vague sense of meaning from them (there are actually two endings depending on what choices you make - hell if I could tell you what I thought the difference between them actually MEANT, though). I'm tempted to recommend this one regardless, considering how well the art style is pulled off (the sound design is also very good, with the reverberating clock ticks that come back again and again being particularly effective) - unfortunately, looks just weren't enough for me to get past the distance the game seemed so determined to create between us. ★★___

Лучшее вложение 59 рублей. Одна из самых красивых игр, что я видела, с глубоким продирающим сюжетом и прекрасной атмосферой

La muerte está mucho más centralizada que en cualquier otro juego que haya probado. La muerte en este título carece de finalidad lúdica. Más bien, adquiere otro significado, uno mucho más profundo.

👍

Visually distinctive and fantastically written, [i] Emporium [/i] blurs the line between game and art. Don't expect thrilling action sequences, but instead a slow-paced story revealed in fragments with dark themes touching on how we react to tragedy. Definitely worth it if you enjoy similar games like [i] Inside [/i], [i] Kentucky Route Zero [/i], and [i] ISLANDS: Non-Places [/i].

Короткий симулятор ходьбы про сломанную психику. Может, если бы я понимал по-английски или был бы перевод, то может быть я и поставил палец вверх. Поэтому могу оценивать лишь геймплей, а он очень беден.