I think I’ve played enough of Move 78 to get a general gist of its quality as a game. Move 78 is an escape room game that challenges the player’s critical thinking as well as their observational skills. It is accompanied by a diverse cast of stereotypical characters with their own personalities in an interesting plot inspired by Danganronpa.
STORY
Ignoring the tutorial, the real story begins when you play as Sigrid who awakes as an amnesiac among others like her in some weird labyrinth of rooms. You team up with your fellow prisoners to search the rooms for clues on why they are trapped here.
I actually liked the plot because it gives me the same urge to find out as when I first heard of Danganronpa. It seems out of place and random at first but as the story progresses, you begin to understand especially when it involves . I also like how diverse the characters are in terms of nationality, personality, and occupation-ality. There’s the tough German soldier, the Korean nerd gamer, the Russian scientist chick, the British doctor, and many more! The voice acting is pretty good too in that you can hear the nationalities and it sometimes can be a bit cheesy.
ART & GRAPHICS
I’m not going to lie, there is a huge contrast in quality between the art and the graphics.
The ingame graphics are very mediocre at best. When I first launched the tutorial, I legitimately thought that the game was an asset flip judging by how the room looked at first. The graphics looks very much like clay covered in plastic wrap for quite a few rooms. The rooms can get dark at times due to the shadows and hard to see from all the lighting. I wouldn’t bash it so much if some of the puzzles didn’t require you to actually look at some objects/find them in the rooms in order to solve them.
Completely opposite to the graphics are the character art designs because they are absolutely gorgeous. They look realistic while retaining the smooth cartoon look. Some are just caricatures but even then they look fantastically well drawn. I applaud the artist(s) who have contributed to creating these works of art.
GAMEPLAY
I’m not the most hardcore puzzle player but I know how these escape room puzzles work at least.
The main gameplay is obviously in the escape rooms in which you explore the rooms to find clues and figure out how to solve the various puzzles scattered around. The puzzles themselves are moderately challenging and creatively fun in that some require you to actually pay attention to your environment and recognize patterns. If you find these puzzles to stump ya, the game isn’t afraid to give you vague, but helpful hints if you choose to look at them. Of course, this won’t apply to all of the puzzles, believe me when I had to look up for a guide because I notice that the puzzles can sometimes be very unintuitive even with the hints but it’s still satisfying to solve them.
There are also visual novel mini-games that you can play if you choose to play with the visual novel elements enabled. I’m going to be honest here, I did not enjoy these mini-games which were akin to playing Quick-Time Events. The first one was particularly awful in that you roll for 6 people to move with dice under a time limit. I do not enjoy games of chance in a game that’s supposed to test my brain. The second one test your timing which does not sound bad but then decides to put brief blindness on you as it progresses. Thankfully, the developers had the foresight to let you SKIP these mini-games which were rather implemented poorly in my opinion as it affected the game’s pacing.
VERDICT
Move 78 is a solid game for escape room enthusiasts and those who enjoy challenging themselves with solving environmental puzzles. It comes with an interesting story and cool characters. I also liked the use of synths in the game’s music which made walking around using my brain much more enjoyable.
You can purchase Move 78 through the Steam store page HERE!
I just want to share my impressions of a video game so people can see if they want it or not.
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