Well, this game, Moirai, is a short free to play title available on Steam. The entire adventure takes about 10 minutes to complete, and can be played multiple times to affect various potential outcomes. I like to go into all of these free to play titles with no real expectations other than a new experience. What I encountered was a fairly ingenious use of minimalism which allows you to craft your own tale by virtue of a fairly ingenious “tag you’re it” style of storytelling.
Story
The basis of the story is simple. A couple of people went missing and you embark on an adventure to try to find them.
You create your own variation of this tale by how you interact with the previous player and their responses to a set of questions posed, the decisions you make in your own playthrough, and then the way the next player reacts to your decisions via your responses to their questions, which you set at the end of your playthrough. Sound confusing? It isn’t. It’s actually pretty brilliant and fairly unique from what I’ve seen in the gaming world.
So, how do reach a resolution to your own playthrough if you are relying on the next player’s reactions? Simple. After that player has responded to your playthrough decisions, you will receive an email (the game will ask you for one at the end of the game) which will give you the true ending to your playthrough.
Graphics
The graphics hail straight from the original Doom era graphics. Pixelated graphics blocks. Minimalism is used as a story device here to add a little bit of tension and mystery to the game. It works well in this regard.
Audio
Not really relevant to this game. In fact, I don’t even recall there being any.
Gameplay
So, as I mentioned before, minimalism plays a heavy role in the way this game, and the story it tells, was crafted. As such, the actual gameplay is likewise very basic. Simple WASD controls (WS for forward/backward and AD for turning) and space bar are used to interact with people/objects. The only other gameplay mechanic is your actual interaction with characters you meet in the game and the ability to type in your own responses to certain questions.
Verdict
I prefer not to use a points scale for reviewing games. I think for this game, it would do it a disservice anyway. It’s free, short, and surprisingly engaging. The file size is 14mb. I see no compelling reason not to play this, and in fact, I feel it is one of those games you don’t want to miss the opportunity to try out. Play this.
