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Death Wore Endless Feathers (Disk 1)

OK, so confession time at the beginning, this is the first part or chapter of a larger game that was released in 2009 but has not seen another instalment since then, so if you’re the sort of person who hates investing time in a game that could never be continued, or for which there will be a wait, this one won’t be for you, which is a shame as it is very cool.

8 bit/Retro/Pixel/Whatever you want to call it graphics are the order of the day and while the backgrounds aren’t too shabby, the character sprites are really very nice and are pleasingly animated.

As is probably obvious from the screenshot, this game has Sci-fi/Cyberpunk stamped all over it. You play Jacob, a hacker in a dystopian etc. etc. where VR, “ractives” and general tech are a way of life, the idea of computer utopia doing very little to follow through in practice with it’s promise of escape from the dilapidated “real world”.

Often in games like this hackers and similar are portrayed as cool but slightly nerdy, but in this game they are more nerdy and slightly cool! If you’re into the cyberpunk thing then you are going to know and like what you are getting.

Another thing that often plagues this type of game is long boring explanations of how life is and the technology which holds the world in thrall. However Endless Feathers goes, if anything, too far the other way, with references to some technology barely explained at all. Not ideal, but probably better than the other way around!

Puzzles are pretty decent but it can take a little while to work out exactly what you’re doing in one or two cases (or it did me anyway ) but this is only a minor thing really.

All in all, the game looks cool and the gameplay doesn’t let it down. If Technobabylon etc. haven’t sated your craving for this sort of thing then it’s definitely worth a go.

I must confess that I’m also not a big fan of dystopian worlds, my own perspective on the future is simply too optimistic for them to be plausible. I’m also not a big fan of the opposite utopian worlds which are just as implausible imo. For me a game like Technobabylon lies just in the sweet spot where it is neither dystopian nor utopian, but instead somewhere in between, with some improvements and some things that have gotten worse compared to our own time.

I’m also not a big fan of lengthy expositions about how the world has developed from our own time and how everything works in a future world. This is something that can be very useful for a writer or game designer to write down, so they can make sure that whatever happens in the book/game/movie is consistent with that, but it should NEVER be included in the actual game/book/movie. Simply throwing us into the story without any kind of explanations at all is much better imo, and if there is some references to technologies or events that are never explained, well that is why we have been born with something called imagination. So this is definitely a big plus for this game as I see it.

I agree with Iznogood that it’s often better to just drop us into the world with as little exposition as possible. If the story is the least bit engrossing, we’ll fill in the gaps ourselves.

As for stories set in a dystopian world, I don’t mind at all. It’s not like it’s not plausible at all if you look at the state of the world we live in. Plus it serves perfectly as criticism on modern society, while also providing more challenges for the main character.
I have more issues with utopian worlds, but even there I don’t mind as long as the story deconstructs them.
Whichever setting works best to tell the story, imo. As long as they don’t force it or go overboard with it, it’s fine with me.

Becky - 09 November 2015 05:26 PM

... How do you invent that type of world without “long boring explanations” that border on, well, whininess?

Yeah, it’s an inherent problem and even with the usual rules of “show don’t tell” it can be tricky business. However, to some extent the same can be said of any fantasy world can’t it? I accept that not all fantasy worlds are unhappy places and obviously the dystopian thing isn’t going to be for everyone (which is fine. ) But the scene needs to be set and where a world is different to what we know then it must be established somehow.

(IZNO) Simply throwing us into the story without any kind of explanations at all is much better imo, and if there is some references to technologies or events that are never explained, well that is why we have been born with something called imagination. So this is definitely a big plus for this game as I see it.

I agree with this of course. The only thing in Endless Feathers is that there is jargon like “Ractive” thrown around right from the start without an explanation and no real “show” element until later on which feels a little alienating. Still a good game though!