Today I'm going to review a game I've played called Else Heart.Break(). It is a fun little open-world(ish) game set in the 90s that cleverly teaches you some programming basics. The site's short synopsis is
A game about friendship, love and technology in a place where bits have replaced atoms.
To me, that makes the game sound intriguing. Knowing it's a programming game, and learning the atoms were replaced with bits, it can make you wonder...does that mean I can change the code of anything in the game world? YES! Well, almost anything...at least with how much I have played, almost anything. I cannot say yet if there is more you can do. The gardener, for example, hacks all the plants in the park. I do not think you get to this level of hacking in the game. But anyway, let's get on with the review.
You play Sebastian in this game, and you are just starting a new job in the town of Dorisburg selling soda. The game is slow to start as you find yourself wandering around town trying to sell soda to people who would rather drink water or beer. You get a map near the beginning, but it functions just like an IRL city map that does not show your location or have any form of interaction you may be used to in other games. It's just a plain map.
It's handy, but pretty empty. And you cannot add notes to it at all.
You eventually come across people altering things in the world. They'll be holding a circuit board, and there will be a flash of color (and hopefully no smoke!). But you will come by one of these soon, and then the fun really begins.
Here's an example of a hack window.
Are we trying to pick a lock here? Yes we are.
So then you will discover that anything you can interact with can be hacked/modified. Don't like having to go to bed? Hack a beverage and carry it with you. I really enjoyed running around and modifying everything too. I found a mysterious cube and made it glow and change color.
You will discover that the town is run by the Ministry of Computers, and they're trying to stop the people hacking everything. But you start hacking everything (why wouldn't you?) so you get on their list obviously. And it's a fun adventure of breaking/improving the world and not getting caught while doing it.
And in your hackings you may discover the internet!!
I just have a few questions and/or complaints. Like, first off, what's up with the noses of everyone in the game?
Did someone hack noses long ago, and now they're all funny looking? Is it supposed to be fashionable? I don't get it.
The story was pretty loose, which was fine for the most part because it allowed you to run around and do your own thing. But when I got toward the end of the game where the story was quite important, all the NPCs seemed they were waiting on me. I ended up figuring out what the problem was - which was beating the game - but none of the people in the game would talk to me about anything until I did that part. A little bit more building of suspense, or better pre-end dialog would have been nice.
Then the ending. I'll try not to spoil anything, but reading about someone's opinion of the ending might be a spoiler, so you may want to skip this part.
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So I beat the game, but it was a rather disappointing end. I read there were multiple endings, but so far I've gathered they are
A. Save the day, leave the town.
B. Save the day, die.
C. Give up, leave the town.
D. Die.
Now I don't know about you, but I see that as one ending and 3 losses. Nothing I've read gave any hint of any other ending than those. So you win, stop the bad thing from happening, and your friends tell you you have to leave the town as fast as possible. When you get back to the boat that brought you to Dorisburg, you're told you better hurry and get on. If you don't, you'll be attacked by dialog and will be killed at the end of it. No seeing what happens to the town after you win? Just "Leave or Die"? For a game as in-depth and puzzling as this one is, I was hoping it would have a more epic ending. However, what you need to do at the end is cleverly told to you way at the beginning, so maybe that's just the default ending if you don't find out the much deeper solution? I don't know, but I'll eventually get back to it and try to figure it out.
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All in all, I really enjoyed the game. Kinda made me wish I had a modifier so I could go around modifying things, like make my car use no gas, or maybe make a house door open to a work door, tell the bank to give me more money (if only it were as easy as it is in this game...), and make drinking water super beneficial. Maybe even make it rain a little more over here where I live...
If you're interested in programming, I'd say give this game a shot. It's a fun challenge, and it's a little like you're in the Matrix too. So try it our and let me know what you think. If you have played, let me know what you thought of it. Maybe we can share simple hacks but not any spoilers?
You can go to elseheartbreak.com to get the game.
