Tangent: I've recently played Analogue: A Hate Story and its sequel, Hate Plus. Aside from being arguably the best text-heavy visual novels about library research on 25th-century space Koreans living on a generation ship in existence, they've got one of the more interesting treatments of LGBTQ characters, social issues, and love I've seen in quite a while.
Has anyone else? What're your thoughts?
I absolutely loved
Analogue; have not checked out
Hate Plus as yet. I played
Don't Take It Personally, Babe before Analogue. Both games surprised me (well, I had more idea what to expect by the time I played Analogue) in a number of ways. Let me count some of 'em:
I really dislike a lot of animé-style artwork, which is predominant in Christine Love's games, so I was already predisposed to turn my nose up. Surprise number one: I was fine with the artwork once I was involved in the story.
I tend to dislike point-and-click adventures, and this kind of interactive fiction strikes me as a close bedfellow of that genre. Again, predisposition inclined me towards dislike, so swinging the other way was surprise number two.
I was surprised at how quickly I was invested in the characters with both games. This is particularly odd in Analogue, given that you're talking to an AI and reading about dead people. There's an easy parallel with
Gone Home here, where I found myself really beginning to like the central character...despite that character being entirely absent from the game. It strikes me that it takes a deft touch to achieve that sort of connection between player and character(s).
There's a lot to moan about in the games industry, so it's fantastic that there are at least some people making thoughtful games like this. It's the perfect antidote to that species of jaded ennui you tend to acquire after thirty-ish years of gaming.
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Topic: The LGBTAlphabet Thread (Read 2337 times)