TR-49

TR-49 is an odd game to review, because it's so centered around text, but I'm not entirely sure the text amounted to much in practice. Not to say it's bad writing. There's some interesting developments, and it's all presented in a clear, concise fashion. It all serves the game goals by being interesting to puzzle through. But it doesn't really amount to much. There's basically 3 narrative layers, and none of them ever really go much of anywhere. There's the protagonist who serves as your avatar, who basically just spends most of the story trapped and scared and who we really don't get to know. There's the people who managed the super computer, whose relationship I actually really liked, but didn't really progress towards anything, and then there's the relationships between the authors who are archived in the computer, which were interesting, but felt like they were building to a much bigger reveal than we actually got. All 3 layers feel like they're scratching around the edges of a much bigger idea without much of a payoff, which felt frustrating. But fortunately, I'm a big style of this sort of puzzle. Connecting the dots and figuring out the labels for each of the documents was genuinely fun and it felt good to get an entire set of files dealt with. For any fan of this growing genre of deductive games like Obra Dinn, The Case of the Golden Idol, or Outer Wilds this is a pretty easy recommendation, as it will scratch that itch, and frankly there's only so many of these games out there. I just wish all that fun work had amounted to an ending that hit harder.

This game is so fun and interesting I played for like six hours without realising. I did cheat a bit, I like puzzles but I am really not good at them so I needed a bit of extra help. It is so incredibly intriguing and the story is so strongly written its ridiculous. The only thing is some of the links between finds were pretty vague and at a point hard to justify, and the endings can be difficult to figure out but also like I'm not that smart so who cares

Absolutely awesome game. I have enjoyed the last 6 hours simply trying to get through the archive. A nice story, with an excellent gameplay behind it. Among my favourite games of all time. By far.

This game is for a select few who find piecing together mysteries while archiving, and getting to do that scratches your brain... Scratches your brain real good... this game is for you, and you are my tribe. The plot is engaging, the atmosphere is dark and mysterious, and the gameplay is deeply satisfying as an Archivist's Mystery. Highly recommend.

An excellent entry into the deduction puzzle genre.

An enjoyable experience, intruigue, logic, puzzling, well written, well acted, and a satisfying experience. Short but well worth the experience.

Another excellent Inkle game. I don't think I found all the secrets, but I still had a great time with the system.