- 4 Stars since it's unrealistic, pixels are crap, and the controls are annoying since the character has to come back to the default spot all the time. (let's not forget the one direction plot)
+1 star for Trying to connect to an ongoing problem in society... but eh, doesn't do much and has very little to stand for itself. I'd say it's pretty flat... only reason it probably got front page is strongly due to the topic i assume.
Good try, sorta hated it though -sorry
The graphics and music are nice. Content-wise, I understand you're trying to give a message, but I think some branching paths would've improved the game's message (maybe on a second playthrough?). There are some bugs though; depending on what you clicked on (like the character's bed), the game loops back to an earlier day, making it sometimes frustrating.
The concept is ok, but the message isn't very clear. Did the author make this video to try and protest violent video games?
The concept, from my perspective, is this: there's tremendous dissension in our culture, and people hate each other's guts, so our only true way to live our lives freely is through violent video games.
Here's the problem, though; if people are evil bastards in real life, then shouldn't we try to address that issue? The absurd implication is that violent video games are the source of evil. Shouldn't we try and address the political reasons for why evil exists before we start blaming people for liking violent video games? I would argue that most of the corruption on this planet is embodied in our so-called journalistic integrity. Our media outlets lie to us on a regular basis, about extremely important things. The wealthiest country on Earth levies and spends its revenue in a very ineffective manner.
It's absurd to make the issue of video game censorship a political issue. There are real political issues that should be addressed first, such as GMO toxicity, glutamate toxicity, suppression of anti-cancer remedy evidence, suppression of free energy technology, suppression of evidence for higher powers, suppression of evidence for deep underground military bases, denial that the US military can't account for over 1/4 of how it spends its money, false flag operations, suppression of evidence that the CIA has been conducting economic terrorism to enslave foreign countries (such as those in South America, as John Perkins witnessed), suppression of evidence that people can bend metal and make objects stick to their bodies via paranormal energy, suppression of evidence exposing the unnecessary brutality of Israel, and lastly- the role of Fox News as a propaganda outlet to brainwash people into adopting a libertarian type of mentality toward the dissolution of the government as a viable social concept.
It's just so much easier to have some random idiot bully who's just like: "you're a nerd, bleh a pushed you down and posted the fact that i did that on facebook; i'm so cool" than to actually address the current political state of humanity and how it actually relates to the video game violence issue. Here's some food for thought: maybe there are people out there who are deeply pissed off at 99.9% of society for good reasons, and because nobody listens or gives a crap about why people are upset, they get brushed off as bullies so we can act like it's all just a manifestation of subliminal programming from video games. The real subliminal programming comes from the internet hivemind of self-indoctrinating, smug attention whores who will believe ludicrous lies as long as those lies come from the establishment (especially the scientific/industrial establishment, and even the communist zeitgeist/libertarian pseudo-rebel establishment).
Here's an example; I was on reddit the other day, I go on to the "enoughpaulspam" sub-reddit, and I find an interesting self-post question by a libertarian. He asks, "What's wrong with libertarianism?". So I'm like: ok, obviously the first and most important thing to address is the glaring hole in their propaganda about fractional reserve banking being a pyramid scheme. So, I post that comment, and yes I'm glad it got the top comment, but I look at all the other comments, and to my amazement, I'm like literally the only comment on that page that even attempts to explain why libertarian economics are impossibly narrow-minded and stupid. My point is, I get pissed off every day at the internet, to the point where I have to use video games to escape my reality. Maybe people like you will look at me and go: "omg he's unstable and it's only a matter of time before he snaps", but I know for a fact that I'm far too apathetic about the real world to bother myself with actually trying to interact with it in any kind of influential way.
How to make this game better: at the end, the main character should have the option to continue without grabbing the gun, and instead just be apathetic and maybe a little depressed. Depression isn't really a psychological illness if you actually have a good reason to be depressed (people being bullies, the world going to hell in a handbasket, etc. are all good reasons to be sane while choosing depression and apathy).
My main gripe with the whole thing: the game is very overly-sensitive about mental instability. People don't have a colorful graphic that determines their mental state, and people don't just arbitrarily be mean to other people because they're just jerks. It's much more complicated than that. Ultimately, it does boil down to good and evil, but it's still so much more complex than all of that.
TL:DR; the game is very patronizing and unrealistic when it talks about having given you freedom. The ending is also non-existent, b/c it's just a reminder that the game has lied to you about having given you an actual choice.
Why I give this a 4.5/5: the idea is certainly interesting. This is one of those rare submissions that actually lets you think. It's certainly far from perfect, but it definitely pushes newgrounds games in the right direction imo. I wish all games were politically philosophical like this, except had better stories and gameplay.
@SinapeseX13, you're wrong in my opinion. If the game was trying to be symbolic about how bullied people do NOT have a choice, but people claim they do, then it wouldn't have even pretended to have multiple choices. But as it does try to have multiple choices - and fails miserably - it's clearly just a bad attempt at being a deep, thought provoking game.
Actual gameplay: 3/10. All you do is click and you have to do exactly as the creator wants you to.
Message: 1/10. Nothing deep about this really, just pretentious.
Total: 4/10 or 2/5.
Good game, has a good story, but the problem here is not the "lack of choices" because the game is meant to be like this. The problem here are all the glitches that don't allow the player to proceed into the game.