Game Info: Impressions

Developed by Infinite Level Games

Published by Infinite Level Games

Released February 4, 2020

Available on Windows

Genre: Indie

ESRB Rating: None

Number of Players: Single player

Price: Free on Steam Thank you Infinite Level Games for sending us this game to review! Impressions is a politically-based indie game revolving around the topic of extraterrestrial life. It follows the news station Stream 47A as they comment on the various events concerning these aliens over the span of four days. At the beginning of each day, the event with the aliens is announced, and the user is greeted with an article about the event. They can click on an arrow in the bottom right corner to see a text chat with various users commenting on the event as well. There is also a button that says “Start Day” that the player clicks in order to start the stream officially. Before the player ever starts any of that, though, they are given a quick but dramatic introduction to the topic of the plot, and are then allowed to choose the appearance and give a name to their character. As they are put on the stream, they are in the center position between their two coworkers, Patricia and Clark. Patricia serves to have an optimistic view on the aliens, while Clark expresses a position of fear and anxiety. As the streams continue, Patricia and Clark have many arguments, which do have a tendency to escalate, and the user has the opportunity to be the tiebreaker or just remain neutral. However, the sentiments they choose affect the overall atmosphere the aliens receive from the humans, allowing the user to replay the game many times and being able to receive a different ending.

Highlights: Strong Points: Well-developed story; fitting music; expressive characters; provides information for the player to use in the discussions; realistic trains of conversation; characters represent diverse viewpoints; real-time conversation where the player can answer; can choose character gender and appearance; ending changes based on perception of the user

Weak Points: Short (only about 25 minutes); 2D graphics sometimes lack proper perspective; cannot save

Moral Warnings: Blatant disrespect and insults thrown at other characters for their opinion, prejudice against said opinions (which don’t deviate from the topic of extraterrestrial visits) The general user interface and controls are easy to handle and grasp, and any differences from normal controls are pointed out in-game. It is mentioned from the very beginning that saving is impossible, which makes sense because a single playthrough only takes about half an hour. However, this lack of length doesn’t allow as much to be explained in the overall plot. The graphics are simple as well, with a distinctive retro feel, and the music is very fitting for the atmosphere of the game’s world, and help to set the mood for each day. The characters, despite being simply rendered, are very expressive, and have the ability to show a wide variety of emotions. The photos on some of the articles, on the other hand, are not as well drawn, with one of the most notable examples being the picture of a building, where the building is upright and the windows are slanting diagonally in such a way that it appears they are inching closer and closer to the edge of the building wall. These small graphical things that I’ve noticed, though, are only things that I’ve picked up because of my scrutinizing artist’s eye, and are not things that particularly hinder the storytelling. The pacing of the conversations on the stream during the day is very close to real-time. The characters discuss the day’s events, and if the argument begins getting heated, interruptions and talking over each other are accurately rendered, not giving the user time to read what is inside each bubble. There are many opportunities to make choices, which are counted as responses to conversation, and the player only gets twenty seconds to answer when allowed to talk.