125,000 words of dialogue, according to the Steam page. I didn’t
read them all, but I read a lot. Be prepared to read your fair share if
you want to see what this future is about.
It starts with an intriguing premise. A woman shows up at your place
of work, claiming to be from the future, and needs your help. Put
simply, an outsider’s perspective on some ethical dilemmas is called
for. A time paradox explanation follows, which adds to the intrigue.
There are five “days”, each involving a different dilemma. The
future narrative sews them together, but they are essentially
self-contained. They deal among other things with euthanasia, cyber
bullying and the nature of God; contemporary issues which are still with
us 30 years hence.
You have conversations, and many of them. The day will end
eventually, perhaps based on a choice, perhaps just because. In one
Chapter you have to determine a culprit to move on. The last day was
probably the most interesting, and it isn’t clear whether you can get
a different ending than the one I got. I won’t spoil it by saying any
more.
There are numerous dialogue choices, but they don’t appear to
affect the way the story plays out. Many times it didn’t matter what I
chose, I eventually exhausted all the options to move on. Maybe you get
different final choices, maybe not. The culprit I chose may or may not
have been correct. It didn’t appear to matter.
There is no gameplay other than dialogue choices, no inventory, no
puzzles, no anything else. There is also no spoken word, electronic
music providing the only sound. Save at will, and continue where you
left off. It is minimalistic visually, and 4 to 5 hours should see you
through.
Given the construct, it’s a good thing the writing is strong. Which
really is the point. I enjoyed the debate with God, and the various
dilemmas are well laid out, in terms of the elements that would be
relevant were you to have to discuss and decide. The end was a surprise,
and befitted what came before.
I confess that Supposedly Wonderful Future didn’t really grab me,
but I admire the ambition of the maker. Don’t buy it to play a game,
but to debate and think about some of the threads of the rich tapestry
that is life.
I played on:
OS: Windows 10, 64 Bit
Processor: Intel i7-6700 4GHz
