Analogue: A Hate Story

Analogue: a Hate Story certainly isn't billed as a feminist game. It's creator, Christine Love, cheekily describes it as being more about transhumanism, traditional marriage, loneliness, and cosplay. Maybe that's true. All I can say is that as a man, the game struck me as unflinchingly feminist. Now, I don't mean that in a confrontational, all-men-are-rapist-pigs straw feminist sort of way. Hell, maybe feminism is not even the right word for it, maybe it's just a game about female experiences presented matter-of-factly. Ladies, this may seem obvious to you. But to us males, this is a wholly unsettling and unexpected revelation. The story as outlined is simple and humble enough. You, a private detective (in space!), travel to a recently discovered wreck of a space ship, which had been previously lost for thousands of years. This ship once held an entire nation of people as it traveled t

There's no doubt that Steam has been flooded, for better or worse, by visual novels as of late. Now, don't get me wrong, Indie titles are great, but amidst the endless stream of "waifu"-bait visual novels (VNs) you'll see here on Steam, I think you'll be hard-pressed to find many decent stories with an intriguing plot that aren't about getting in a girl's pants for an affordable price. That's par for the course when discussing visual novels, but that's also why I tend to trust VNs from well-known studios/devs, because at least you know you'll get plot while playing VNs of acclaim like Clannad, the Grisaia Trilogy, or The Devil on G-String in exchange for their premium price. But, let's rewind time back to 2012, when Gangnam Style was top of the charts around the world and every tween and their literature teacher was dying to see Shaky Camera: The Movie The Hunger Games. In this archaic

I will start off by saying that I am a great lover of Visual Novels and games of the sort. I will admit that coming into Analogue: A Hate Story, I was fairly skeptical and I wasn't sure what to make of it. The only real negative was that I found the game did not make it very easy to get into and I felt like the user interface was a little bit unclear in sections. A factor that I have no doubt would initially put people off. Little did I know that later on I would come to the conclusion that this game is worth every second I invested into it. The story is incredible once you have managed to piece things together and after some time you begin to learn new things and discover new secrets. The level of depth and thought that has gone into the creation of this game is incredible and I would reccommend everybody to play it. There are some fun little additionals which are added into the game

This is ancient history now, but for a while, back around 2005 or so, there was a perception, largely created by a single translation group, that the "visual novel," a format of linear text adventure that grew out of the Japanese PC games scene, might actually have something to offer beyond cheap titillation. They chose short, indie works like narcissu, Planetarian or OMGWTFBBQ, melodramatic stories of finding that last emotional connection in the moments before your early and miserable death. And then they pretty much stopped doing it (at least for free), because, hell, translating this stuff is a pain, and that was the end of that. Analogue feels much like the promise of those earlier works. Written in English by a native speaker and skilled writer, with a great sense for how to use the interactive features of the format to really draw you in, in a way that "an ordinary book" can't. I

I bought Analogue: A Hate Story on a lark. It was on sale, and I was bored, so I figured I'd give it a shot. I'm a big fan of the science-fiction and transhuman genres, and Analogue seemed to offer a bit of both. I was not prepared for what this game had to offer. Perhaps calling it a "game" is a bit generous. It's an interactive novel, with almost no action sequences to speak of. The closest you'll come to any sort of twitch-reflex or quick-time events is typing into a terminal while an angry countdown clock stares you down. But still, there are choices to make and consequences to pay, with five potential endings - four of which can be carried right into the second game, Hate Plus. Don't go into this game expecting action and excitement. If you're looking for that, then you're in the wrong place. But if you enjoy a gripping tale of political intrigue, psychological horror, and surpri

Its like a choose your own adventure game mixed with a visual novel and I loved it. I usually treat VNs like the plague but this game right here is something special. I really felt like I was Sherlock Holmes mixed with Indiana Jones IN SPACE on a mission through time discovering the mystery of the space station you found. It was very engaging having to dig through all the files piecing together the lives and politics of the people who had once lived there. The twists and turns and trips and burns are all very interesting and kept me going along wondering what I would discover next. This game is pretty amazing and if you dont mind lots of reading and anime chicks then I definitely recommend this game.