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Simulacra is a horror game about investigating a missing girl’s cellphone that has moments of brilliance but doesn’t quite live up to its concept.
Losing a mobile phone is a common fear that many people have due to how much of their life they trust to the gadget . Simulacraplays on these fears by telling a revulsion story through the medium of reading another person ’s personal thoughts , as the player has to tack together together a mystery story in a game that has a gravid story to recite but is often hamstring by the way of life in which it taste to evidence it .
Simulacrais a puzzle game that involves searching for a missing daughter by get through her personal messages and picture . The game essentially film thefound footage concept and applies it to smartphones . The player wakes up and finds a orphic cellphone that has been shoved through their front door . The telephone set belong to a female child named Anna who has n’t been seen for several days . It ’s up to the actor to uncover the whodunit behind Anna ’s disappearance by reading numerous e-mail and direct messages . It does n’t take long for the player to bring in that something is wrong with the speech sound , as it almost seems to have a biography of its own .
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The conception ofSimulacrais genius and the story is the highlight of the total experience . There is an undeniable voyeuristic joy to reading through a stranger ’s most personal thoughts and the game encourage the participant to memorize every point of Anna ’s hopes , pipe dream , and disappointments in ordering to teach more about her . Anna has had a rough few months and the story of her disappearance gradually unfolds across numerous unlike conversation with the people in her life . The instrumentalist is throw the chance to interact with Anna ’s friends and lovers without knowing who exactly can be commit . These elements ofSimulacraare similar to a optical novel and the choices made in conversation are the key to let on the biz ’s five endings . It ’s potential to utilize the information on Anna ’s phone to deceive others and it ’s up to the player to determine whether such natural action are satisfactory when trying to save a aliveness . Anna herself is played by Wendy van Horen and she appears in numerous photos and videos throughout the game . The fact that Anna is play by a real actress add a great deal of weight to the type and make her find a lot more real than if her presence had been limited to text .
The main issue withSimulacrais the carrying out of its puzzle . There are some puzzles that involve searching through Anna ’s sound so as to chance a specific slice of data that is needed to progress , such as an email name and address or a sound number , and these are generally a mass of fun . The problem comes in the form of the rest of the puzzle in the game , which either involve build a correct sentence out of a string of language or lining up picture piece . These puzzle are tedious at well and frustrating at big , to the point where they bog down the intact experience . It feels as ifSimulacrawould have been greatly improved by either dropping the puzzles entirely andbecoming an excellent visual novel , or number up with a greater variety of mental capacity puzzle for justify their existence .
The other major issue is the root of the horror in the game , as it oftenrelies on jump scaresin ordering to elicit a reaction from the player . Simulacracan be a very creepy secret plan in its own way and the gradual reveal of the story through text messages is masterfully done , but the glitched - out face accompanied by tawdry unchanging noises are the meretricious panic in the book and they only detract from the experience .
The transition to consoles also hurtsSimulacrain several way . Simulacrais the kind of game that is meant to be played on a fluid earpiece and playing it on a television takes something away from the experience , though the Nintendo Switch ’s handheld mode alleviates this passably , as it ’s stuffy to how the game should be play . Playing the biz with a control instead of a touch screen can also be a tedious experience , due to several mystifier necessitate the player to typewrite out names and e-mail addresses .
Simulacrahas an amazing conception on report , but the secret plan never quite endure up to its potential . The slow reveal of the story and experience of reading through someone else ’s life sentence is compelling on its own , but the dull puzzles and tacky parachuting scare take away from the experience as a whole . There is a great story waiting to be tell inSimulacra , but there are a muckle of hurdles that get in the way of savor it .
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Simulacrareleases for Nintendo Switch , PlayStation 4 , and Xbox One on December 3 , 2019 . A digital transcript of the Nintendo Switch variant of the biz was ply to Screen Rant for the purpose of this review . Simulacra 2is also in the worksand will be liberate for Android , iOS , and PC on December 12 , 2019 .
