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"Is Dorothea Pemberton a trans girl" - the greatest thread in the history of revisions, WI-93'd by AB-81 after 12,239 pages of heated debate,
TR-49
4/5⭐| Steam | Fun, if quick, puzzle game, with an interesting if subtle plot and great voice acting
From the makers of Heaven's Vault comes another puzzle game, this time about searching for books inside a weird computer archive. The only interface is entering 4-character codes into a machine, which may or may not lead to specific documents. Finding the documents' titles unlocks snippets of them and helps connect the various documents through time and history. The gameplay is very reminiscent of The Roottrees Are Dead, just with a plot centered around fascism, dark magic, and resistance instead of family soap opera celebrity drama. 😅
The puzzle aspect of the game is very fun, and I enjoyed it, even though it never really was that hard. At first, the sheer amount of material feels overwhelming, and I love being faced with a giant puzzle and slowly unpicking it. Even later on as the final connections became very straightforward, I still had fun and felt satisfied overall! The game takes notes for you, which definitely makes it a lot easier than something like Blue Prince - not sure how I feel about that, but it didn't really affect my enjoyment. :)
The WWII era machine aesthetics are gorgeous, and the sound design is amazing, both with really immersive, chunky sound effects and wonderful voice acting. My only issue is that at first, the voice acting kept interrupting me when I was trying to read and absorb information - but you're not on a timer, so pausing to have conversations and then returning to research is fine. I also think the second "outsider" character to appear was a complete miss. He was upsetting for no real purpose, as far as i could tell, and I basically ignored him completely.
My other complaint is that the "final ending" is so easy to find - I wish it was some sort of ultimate puzzle combining the entire games' worth of knowledge, but instead it was just a super obvious step from the previous solution. There are 4 endings though, so finding all 4 of them is a fun little exercise even when you have completed the entire archive.
Despite its small issues, this is definitely a game worth playing. It only took me 5 hours to 100%, so it doesn't overstay its welcome. It serves up an intriguing world with fun puzzles that's beautiful to look at and listen to - what more can you ask for?
Just finished the storyline to TR-49, Inkle studio's latest effort. It's very much in the vein of The Roottrees are Dead and Her Story, both of which I really enjoyed. One of those games where you need to take notes to puzzle out the logical leaps you need to take, and very satisfying when you do. Thoroughly recommend it.
In love with this
Sometimes I really want to read a short summary of what to expect from a game with a very particular description that CATER to my OWN SPECIFIC interests, so here we go.
(click here for other videogames)
what to expect from TR-49
Mystery, puzzle, text game
Partially voiced (the protagonist and a few characters she speaks with are fully voiced, books' extracts/quotes are also voiced, but additional notes are not)
You play as Abby, a woman who wakes up in a basement and in front of a mysterious archive machine. You can speak with Liam, a man who asks you to find a book
The machine is an archive of books, texts and notes from the 1800s till more recent times
The only way to read the entries is indexing them (finding the title of the book and matching it to the code that identifies author + year of publication)
The player needs to investigate and uncover the books titles, codes and the correct matching, for example: CC-11 to identify the note/entry written by Cecil C. in 1911.
Each entry is composed by: a quote from the book, alongside a title (both unreadable until correct matched), a note by an archivist. Clues for the correct answer and uncovering more codes/titles are found within the text in a labyrinth of associations
Clues and information is also written by Abby into a notebook
Some codes unlock other events (ex. go back of one entry, some comments under certain entries, a maze etc.)
Through reading these entries and the comments, you can uncover not only who Abby is, how she ended up in there, but also a bigger story about what is happening in the world
The game also has some real books (ex. Alfred Tennyson's Lady of Shalott) which are always in the game, and some other novels that randomly change from playthrough to playthrough. These are not plot relevant, but simply easter eggs
There are multiple endings depending on your choice. Only your final choice will determine the ending
The detective work is done by the player not the character (I found myself with a calculator at one point, summing up dates of death and birth and publications to find more codes). As in, the game is not going to explain the story to you.
The setting of the texts/books in the story is mainly World War II
plot? You are a young woman named Abby who finds herself in a mysterious basement and in front what looks like an old war machine. A man you have never met before (Liam) asks you to find a book through the archives of the machine. gameplay? text choice, decoding, puzzle characters? The protagonist and the people who added notes to the entry, alongside Liam, are the main characters. sadness level? medium death? (spoilers)
Attempting to create a timeline for TR-49: part2 -> 1941 - 1999 (endgame)
Part 1 is here
MAJOR spoilers
Attempting to create a timeline for TR-49: part1 -> 1799-1940
As usual, Inkle games always make me end up taking notes and trying to decipher them. This time, I am trying to put together a timeline of TR-49, with the actual events as they happenen. I will add in italics my comments.
SPOILERS (in two parts because of tumblr limits. Part 2 is here)