Superliminal

every time someone has asked me what my favourite game is, they're astounded it's /this/ game specifically. why not like, a triple A game? something better? something with actual playability? something well known? something that /everyone/ knows? well, hear me out on this one: i think superliminal is on par with the famous Portal series. yes, i'm serious. i stumbled upon this game when popular youtubers had also caught a whiff of a brand new indie game on the market - a puzzle game. interesting.. a bit more scrolling and it seems to be the developers' first game. i immediately bought it, having been tugged in by the (albeit very proud) short trailer and mind-bending physics. truth be told, as with many games of this genre, i thought i'd finish the game within an hour or two and be satisfied with my time. little did i know, this game offered so much more than what it shows. so. much. more. it's been a while since my first playthrough, so honestly i might re-count some things incorrectly, please excuse me. during my first playthrough, i found myself wholly immersed within the plot all the way from start to finish. i want to state that i am a person who rarely feels "immersed" in games, music, or any kind of media these days, having spent well too much time with a computer. nevertheless, i felt very pleased and pleasantly surprised at the pacing. it went at your own pace, slowly dragging you through its storyline as you curiously learnt the intricate mechanics of the puzzles presented to you. this game does not hold your hand. it gives you the puzzle, and you solve it in a way that makes sense to you. conventional solutions, unconventional solutions, hell even bugging out on purpose! the world is your oyster; nothing is wrong so long as you progress. the story is nothing short of brilliant; a unique plot set in a unique environment, with a convincing predicament and interesting characters (even if there are no physical characters!). my favourite mechanic of this game were the radios (if i remember correctly...) and how that tied in to the story. you would have the broadcasting voice, and the radio voice. two juxtaposed characters that you could hear separately. the game /forces/ you to make judgements, and to ultimately decide for yourself. the soundtrack for Superliminal is simple yet effective and beautiful at best. funnily enough being super into music i dont get to listen to a lot of classical music, but Superliminal's piano pieces have come to have a special place in my heart. the composing is just right, even if some of the extra tracks on its OST don't technically fit the bill. i've made peace with them. the metaphors and explicit design language is formidable, the small details, the landscape and its reccuring props, all these are my favourite parts, and collide to form Superliminal. a game that once i thought was a simple puzzle game, that turned into a pretty life-changing experience for me. let me finish this messy review with my favourite quote ingame: "In a few minutes, you'll be back in the real world, and some part of you will say that none of this was real: So how could it have meant anything? But - just like the power of perspective itself - it will have been as real as you believed it to be. All you've got to do is.. wake.. up."