The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

A long time ago, I fell in love with a little game called Digital: A Love Story. Sure, it was a little cheesy, but it was creative, and it had its heart in the exact right place. Catching up on Rock, Paper, Shotgun, I found out the person who made it had created another little art game, called don’t take it personally, babe, it just ain’t your story, and Brer’s like “Oh yeah, should I have told you about that?” and I gave him a dirty look over the internet. Of course he should have. I immediately downloaded it and played it.

It’s solid, but didn’t blow me away (IGN.com) like Digital did.

One of the things that Digital really got me with was how everything about the game drew you into the setting. It really felt like I was actually at a computer in the old days, dialing into BBSes and such. It was really cool in that regard.
don’t take it personally, however, is trying to be a Japanese visual novel, and pulling that off. There’s already a level of removal there, since your character is not you, like it is in Digital. This means that the storytelling leans much more heavily on the writing. Now, I’m not going to say the writing is bad, because it isn’t. It’s pretty good. But there are moments where a character could have been more complete, or where a couple more editing passes could have made a sequence more eventful, and you’re more aware of it than you are in Digital because all you have is the text before you. This is especially apparent in the conclusion, which comes off seeming a bit heavy-handed. It’s a shame.

Still, the game does some really interesting things. The main conceit is that you are a teacher who, essentially, has access to all of the Facebook conversations, public and private, of all your students. As you’re having conversations and talking, little alerts will pop up in the corner, telling you new posts have been made. Looking at these will let you in on the secrets of these students’ lives, as well as what they’re thinking, as they’re updating while you talk to other people in the room. It’s an interesting way to keep one perspective, but also give us insight into the brains of the other characters. It’s also a really huge conceit: I didn’t believe for a second these students would use a service with a security hole like that. This is addressed to some extent in the final scene, but again, it’s a bit heavy-handed and I didn’t really like it.

As Rock, Paper, Shotgun pointed out, though, the game does an amazing job of simulating what it’s like to interact with people today. You’re constantly jumping from the conversation in game to the messages on the Facebook clone and back to the conversation and, on top of that, jumping to talking with people online as well while you play, if you’re like me. In that regard, the game is a bit engaging in that you really do simulate what you’re actually doing as you do it. Of course, the problem is that Mr. Rook, the character you play as, is a character very much out of your control, so that fact tends to tug you out just as these mechanics are tugging you in.

The game asks you to make some tough decisions, such as having a relationship with a student and how to give relationship advice to the many couples asking for help. The whole point is that you know more than you can say, because you can see their private chats, and it becomes up to you whether you use that knowledge or not. It’s an interesting idea, and the game has several branching paths, depending on what you chose. However, I just wasn’t interested enough to go back and replay to see them. What I chose felt right, as opposed to being decisions I should have made otherwise. Maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe all the decisions feel that way. I’m not sure. Still, it’s nice there are some branching paths.

Before I wrap up, I do have to mention the art. The art is… really weird. There are static images of the characters when they’re talking, but there are also occasionally a drawn scene thrown in to highlight action. These drawn scenes feel like they’re in the uncanny valley. They’re so close to the art style of the characters, but also just enough off that they seem incredibly creepy. I’m not sure if it was on purpose or what, but it was sort of unsettling.

If you hate the idea of a visual novel, this game will do absolutely nothing to make you like the genre. Still, if you liked Digital, you’ll probably enjoy it. It’s solidly built and I had a good time playing through it. It isn’t the next big art game, but it is totally worth your time. Give it a chance.