Indie | Redefining First-Person – Part II

By Fraser McMillan

In part one of Redefining First-Person, I examined a game that uses the perspective for something that is still very twitch-reliant and action oriented, albeit lacking in firearms.

Indeed, the game I promised to cover in the follow-up article, Brain Pipe, was again in a similar vein – reflex-based and fast-paced. Mike Inel’s second and currently final foray into interactive art, Where, totally subverts all expectations of what first-person should be and, on balance, provides more suitable material for the investigation.

Upon starting, the player is presented with a white-saturated world in which there exists nothing other than a single pillar and an accompanying bright object. On closer inspection it appears to be a balloon, but as an approach is made, tiles fall from the nothingness above and imprison you within a miniature labyrinth. It’s only natural to feel entirely lost at this point, but with a little bit of exploration you’ll discover that the four corners of the maze give the player agency to alter the world they inhabit. Already it’s clear that this isn’t your usual first-person fodder, nor even standard independent esoterica.

Four presets with aesthetic differences and slight layout modifications are the only changes possible, but this is where the puzzle element is introduced. The aforementioned light balloon in the middle is the sole route out of this beautiful nightmare, and some guesswork, coupled with a knack for direction, will lead you to the goal. Each corner of the tile-space sweeps away the maze and current style and replaces them with whichever alternative the player selects.

//Slow-burner
Having felt out the general thrust of the game, and being ever-so-slightly let down by its singular focus on abstract rules, my spirits lifted when I noticed a trio of veiled and possibly accidental – but radical – departures from first-person play. Even among non-violent puzzle games that use the perspective (Portal being the obvious touchstone), Where is in next to no company. Its approaches to goals, narrative and protagonist are all seismic shifts, but changes that, for better or worse, will be largely ignored.

Firstly, though its map design and objective are blatantly rigid, the way in which I came to understand the world’s rules certainly was not. It arrived as a belated and unexpected revelation, but this was perhaps not Inel’s intention; I’ll admit that I was close to stroking the Esc key in frustration, though personal dim-wittedness does not equal bad design. Such a reaction is the wrong one to have, because the pretence was plainly outlined at the very beginning, and it was in my haste that I failed miserably to grasp the connotations.

[Continues...]

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