MASTER REBOOT SERIES

The вЂњFlightвЂќ memory has to be one of the scariest moments IвЂ™ve experienced playing videogames, forcing me to pause the game like a wimp. These sequences fit the psychological nature of the game much better than trivial intellectual challenges.ДЄs you slowly unravel the dark stories around the morally dubious Soul Cloud, the game also gets increasingly terrifying. These are more reminiscent of experiences like Gone Home or Dear Esther, where the focus is not so much on inventory puzzles but rather providing an understanding of the central characterвЂ™s feelings in order to create a deeper immersion into their world. Other memories rely more on exploration and finding objects that need to be picked up or activated. YouвЂ™re dealing with episodes of a past filled with intense emotions, fears and heavy psychological drama, but resolve many of them by repeatedly mix вЂn matching shapes, an activity that provides no depth to the underlying theme and feels irrelevant. The problem with most of these is that they feel rather arbitrary and at odds with the captivating narrative. This may be thematically pertinent here, but after a while it starts feeling like Master Reboot recycles the need to memorize and reproduce patterns in puzzles far too much. In the case of the science puzzle, you must recall the order of the planets in our solar system and arrange them in an interactive space sequence.

MASTER REBOOT SERIES

In the вЂњSchoolвЂќ memory you have to solve a series of puzzles related to the art, music and science lessons for the level to be completed. Since Through the Looking Glass was a notable book for this person when they were young, you cross a mirror to find yourself in a bedroom where the furniture is huge (or are you tiny?), as when Alice drinks the potion. For instance, one of the first levels you are able to explore is the вЂњChildhoodвЂќ memory. ThereвЂ™s also a general purpose key or button to interact with the world, one for running and another for jumping.Д«oth the mechanics and tone of each level are designed around the significance of the episode in your hostвЂ™s life, much like levels in Psychonauts were built around the psyche of each character. You move forward and strafe with the keyboard or controller stick and look around with the mouse or the other stick. Movement in Master Reboot works as generally expected in first-person, free-roaming games. But for every traditional puzzle you encounter, the game surprises you with an unexpected mechanic that makes this game so hard to label and predict, like a flight for your life from a killer robo-teddy bear. A lot of this will be familiar territory for adventure gamers: Decoding an unknown language to obtain a password, memorizing the order in which bells toll, getting out of mazes. The particular village youвЂ™re in serves as the hub to the gameвЂ™s levels, which represent the most important periods in your hostвЂ™s life.ДЄlthough the real point is to discover more about the Mysteri Foundation and determine the identity of both yourself and the owner of the memories youвЂ™re accessing, progress is made by overcoming challenges and puzzles in these self-contained worlds, thus progressing and unlocking more memories. For every soul uploaded into the cloud, the Mysteri Foundation creates a personal town with buildings that hold important memories from the deceased. Your identity and who are you visiting are revealed as you progress and put the pieces together. You play the game as a visitor to the Soul Cloud. Master Reboot abandons traditional conventions in favour of its story and breaking boundaries, and in general it does so very well, though not without some noticeable fragmentation and a lack of ingenuity in puzzle design. Here in this artificial afterlife youвЂ™ll find an unusual adventure game that incorporates mechanics from a wide variety of other genres including platforming, stealth, arcade, racing and even first-person shooters. ItвЂ™s the promise of eternal life through the miracles of technology. Here people can upload the memories of near-death family members and recreate their personas online so anybody can visit them long after theyвЂ™ve passed away.

Master Reboot unfolds inside a Soul Cloud, a virtual reality created by the Mysteri Foundation. Imagine a world where death is no longer final, where precious memories are saved to enjoy forever, where your вЂњsoulвЂќ is immortal.

Master reboot