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Fight For The Top 50 – Device 6
Simogo Games' Device 6 was unlike anything I played in 2013. That's not always a good thing. For every amazing experimental indie game I play, there's another that tries and fails to grab my attention. One of the reasons that I latched onto Device 6 was that while it different from anything I played recently, it brought back memories of some of my favorite games from my Amiga days. Device 6 is, you see, a graphic adventure that's extremely skimpy on the "graphics" side of things. Calling it a graphic-design adventure might actually be more accurate.
Like a graphic adventure, there are puzzles to solve and areas to explore. What sets Device 6 apart is how it conveys information to players in a collage of sound clips, still images, and plenty of text. You don't walk around so much as you swipe around trails of text on your iOS device. The text winds around, and you often have to rotate your device to keep up. It has a creepy Cold War vibe and an interesting story to back it up, too.
You awake on an island, without any memory of how you got there. As you explore, you peel back layers of paranoia and conspiracy by solving puzzles and reading. You might have to line up keywords behind moving picture frames, or use logic to determine what exactly a series of stuffed bears are trying to communicate. You have to pay attention to your surroundings if you want to get to the ultimate answers.
The reason I chose to fight to get it on the list is simple: Not very many people in the office have played the game. It's tough enough to keep up with the big names of the year; I understand why something this small and quirky might slip by unnoticed. There are going to be a lot of well-known games that don't make the list, and they'll all have their champions. I just think that Device 6 deserves a few more editors in its corner.
The Top 50 Challenge
Ben Reeves has accepted my challenge. I've been watching him turn his iPad around, and from the expression on his face, he's been absorbed in the story. Either that or he's having a very bad day. I'm curious to see where he lands on the game. Mostly, I'm glad that he's playing.
Ben was given one day to play Device 6. Come back tomorrow at 3 PM CT to read his impressions and see if it’ll get his support for Game Informer’s Top 50 Games of the Year.
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