Word of the Day - Richard Otter

Twitch playthrough

My Twitch play went for 2 and a half hours and I did a 2nd playthrough afterwards to reach the end, so there’s a lot of content here. I enjoyed the game, especially after a 2nd pass that allowed me more perspective and a chance to properly write down all my findings. The world building was top-notch, and really did a great job presenting a place, a struggle, a plot, a society that felt well developed and well-thought out, with different goals, values, and horrible secrets. The puzzles mostly required diligent observation and thorough searches (I will say that the only time I got majorly stuck was when I missed an exit) and the setup itself gives a purpose to the typically purposeless treasure collecting adventure game gimmick. I felt like some of the dialogue and themes got a bit repetitive on a few occasions, whereas it took me a 2nd playthrough to really put together the significance of all the pieces. I’ve gotten a few good endings (including one where I seem to have gotten the maximum money), but I have ideas and clues that call at me to find the rest.

I recommend playing this game where you not only map out the layout, but write down the event times and characters on the ship. It helps things click into place.

This is a sci-fi adventure game, not as you might guess from the title, a game about word play.

I have posted a review and transcript here: blog.templaro.com/review-word-day/

  • Jack

I feel like I mostly post to complain, so I should make a point to mention, this is one of the best games I’ve played in the comp yet. (I’m nowhere near done, though.) It’s obvious a ton of work has been put into it-- a big map, tons of background, several smooth systems implemented. I find it a bit hard to connect to the main character–we have approximately opposite priorities in life–but that’s probably at least a bit intentional. This is the sort of story where everyone’s at least a little bit of an asshole, but not so irredeemably so that it’s offputting (and I’m pretty easily put off by that). I also found that when the dialogue does start up, it highlights the flaws in the writing. It can be a bit disjointed, which is more acceptable in room descriptions and when narrating the thoughts of an alien character and such, but, well–[spoiler]

[/spoiler]But truly, this is very good. There’s a lot of meat to it, and I’ve been poking at it on and off for days (I abruptly have a job now, which is causing fluctuations in my free time).

Edit to add: Now that I’ve finished a runthrough, I’m wondering about the other endings. I can get a sense of what they must be, but it’s hard to see how to get there.[spoiler]I have the walkthrough ending (obey the “commander”, score 5 and 6 (the difference is whether you haggle your bribe)), and I know you can easily kill yourself with the bomb. (I just trial-and-errored it, but thinking back, I bet there was only one wire in common between the one side and the real detonator or something.) The game gets a bit confused if you get serious about saying no to the “commander”–

It looks like succeeding in that ending is going to involve more planning and probably door shenanigans than I’d like. I was worried something like this would happen when I saw all the open/closed/locked notations by the doors…[/spoiler]