Always Sometimes Monsters (страница 1)

... 30 дней из жизни персонажа, который должен пройти путь от восточного до западного побережья прежде, чем его единственная любовь выйдет замуж за кого-то другого.

Интересный проект, действительно! Послежу.

Always Sometimes Monsters mirrors so much of my own real-world experience that it's hard to get any distance from it. At one point, while freelancing for a news outlet in the game, a PR manager handed me a sack of cash, and I took it. I've never come that close to breaching journalistic ethics in real life, but I've been damned close. Especially when I had just started out and was regularly seeing eviction threats from my landlord.

When backed against a wall and faced with starvation, I've abandoned almost all of my morals. I've said, time and again, that if I saw someone in need, no matter what I was going through, I'd help them. But I know that's a lie, and more than once, when it really counted, I've let someone else down. That experience isn't unique to me though. Eventually everyone will know the taste of desperate.

Always Sometimes Monsters isn't the first game to get clever with morality. It's not the first game that's had a few grey areas. It also isn't about either of those. It's about perspective. It's about empathy. It's about who we are and why we do what we do. That narrative is one of contradiction and hypocrisy, because that's what real people are about.

9 / 10

Games can often feed into an inflated sense of self-importance. We save Earth, reunite nations and conquer long-dead civilisations. But that's not real. None of it is. Our real choices in our real lives are much smaller and more personal. Choosing to hold the door open for one person may just enough kindness to save their day. Conversely, a nasty look or a snide comment to the wrong person can send them spiraling into a whirlwind of depression.

In its sentimental presentation, Always Sometimes Monsters runs a lot closer to critically insignificant and yet massively influential choices than it does to the kind of grand world-saving fodder typical of games. One path that I thought insignificant ended with the murder of a child at the hand of his drug-dealing uncle. I had no idea, nor any hint that I'd done anything wrong. In fact, up until that point, I was expecting the kid to mug me.

We all make snap judgments about the people around us, and they do the same. Once again, Always Sometimes Monsters cuts really close to home by encouraging you to judge others and letting them judge you.

А зацепило.