Gaming has come a long way over the few decades it has seen, establishing itself as one of the most prominent as well as a lucrative industry. Over time, with its vivaciously prolific journey, it has managed to have us bear witness to its multitudinous facets, both good and bad. More often than not, averaging between the two and just earning some bleak and drab reactions from us. But some trenchant ones have always surfaced and caught our fancy like a colossal ball of fire raging through the icy North Pole. Except that there are a lot of people to take notice rather than none. Like any other new phenomenon, gaming saw a fusillade of deviant game concepts.
Latterly, this barrage has lessened greatly, but there’s always room for ideas. Recent times have seen a spurt of independent game developers, ofttimes owing to conflicting ideas among game developers, or just people not getting the nod for their ideas from the biggies or because dome gene developers just want to work in their own sweet time in their own company of a select few. One of such developers is Theory Interactive Ltd. Two guys by the names of Alpo Oksaharju and Mikko Kallinen make this company and their first game – currently under production – goes by the name Reset; something, that caught OUR fancy while back. But we’re just one of the few who took notice of it from the start. So what is that makes it so special? Theory Interactive Ltd. started a blog back in February 2012, reset-game.net.
"The game’s 16 square kilometre world is preposterously detailed so much so it that makes you question its humble origins. And the question that comes to mind is, how in the name of Mario could a team of two people come up with something so beautiful as this."
The idea for the for the game was begot a couple of years back. But what’s really of essence is how the game has come about in almost two years of its ‘official’ existence. The game’s debut trailer was released in April of 2012 and the whole if it was from the in game engine. And if your friend asks you, “Does it look anywhere near good?” then you make a wry face and jeer at them if possible. Because that’s just as wrong as a question can get.
Reset is a PC exclusive, mystery sci-fi noir, puzzle based first person game and according to its developers, they plan to release it somewhere towards the end of 2014. The game is still largely under development but the only two videos that have been released by Theory make you think otherwise. The game without doubt, has set a completely new benchmark for indie games and this new yardstick is a ridiculous one; but well earned. The game’s 16 square kilometre world is preposterously detailed so much so it that makes you question its humble origins. And the question that comes to mind is, how in the name of Mario could a team of two people come up with something so beautiful as this.
The game is so opulently gorgeous that it leaves you mesmerised for a good long while and it takes a lot more than thoughts to shake you out of your reverie. And that’s not even the best part! Reset is a Portal-esque game set in the almost near future on Earth, on a volcanic fictional island by the name of Galápagos. Players can explore this 16Km square world and it’s not as simple as “Solve a puzzle to get the next”. Each puzzle that you solve in this single-player adventure game adds to the narrative of the game. This ‘small’ open world indie-mech game features spatial reasoning puzzles sprinkled with copious amounts of physics based time-manipulation puzzles.
"Portal lovers would have to hold their horses a tad longer for this but by no means does it state that it’s ONLY the Portal lovers that read about Reset with a groan and carry a heavy weight in their hearts with a dire longing."
The nerve wracking part is the game’s ability to let the player go back in time to solve puzzles co-operatively with himself or herself! You can select a time and place of re-entry in the game to complete a puzzle and having done so, you can ’reset’ yourself to the re-entry mark making two distinct timelines in the game. The puzzles in the game require/permit you to go beyond two timelines. Puzzles of such degree and complexity sure sounds enticing and makes the ‘small’ world of the game seem not so small especially when it’s your brain that is at stake. Portal lovers would have to hold their horses a tad longer for this but by no means does it state that it’s ONLY the Portal lovers that read about Reset with a groan and carry a heavy weight in their hearts with a dire longing.
The single player co-op game mechanic will have 33 puzzles to solve and the developers promise an added 1.5-2 hours of gameplay if they get more funds. The game even boasts of dynamic day and night cycles with accurate star positions. The game devs say that the game is meant for just a couple of sittings and will provide a gameplay of roughly 6 hours depending upon how you approach the game and the world of Galápagos. The story is colsely interwoven with the puzzles in the game.
The debut video of the game garnered 400,000+ hits on Youtube within a week. And as already stated, this anticipation isn’t without cause. The video has a robot sitting idly in a seemingly abandoned city as time passes by. The visual and audial aspects of the trailer give off an eerie sense of the city and the environment around the robot, the video ending with a hint of awakening in the robot. That just makes you want to go and pat that robot on the shoulder saying “It’s all gonna be alright soon….” . Just you wait for the release. The world around seems a tad dull and dreary but it isn’t done done vapidly.
"The game was inspired from samll budget, charming indie movies like Moon and Cube. And so the developers thought of stepping into the gaming indie market. But obviously, the gaming industry doesn’t provide as easily with the means of producing games."
Neither has the beautification of the game been done too gaudily. The visuals just seem right; most excellent visuals that don’t seem to have been overdone and don’t look bad at all and seem to interwreathe perfectly with the game and the video allusive of the upcoming title’s sombre story. The visuals look stellar and the video had been produced when the game wasn’t even in the alpha stage. That sure sent our minds down in a tumble as we fumbled to grasp what more can we expect from the upcoming game and again, we aren’t alone in this (which is quite obvious by now).
Theory Interactive had taken to crowdfunding to raise the required funds for the game and had raised roughly 70,000 Euros. Those of you who had been following the game’s blog – and even otherwise – would know that the game also has support for the virtual reality 3D gaming headset, Oculus Rift. Since the developers have for long emphasises on how the depend heavily upon the game’s environment to convey what they mean to convey, the game’s coming to the Oculus Rift promises an even furthered experience of immersion into this dismally ecstatic adventure game.
Since we’ve been running in an unorthodox fashion till now with regard to the game, we finally concern ourselves with how the conception of the idea of the game design. Since not much has been let on by Alpo and Mikko – the developers from Theory – we only know of a daringly funny idea that went on to give us a plentiful insight into Reset. The game was inspired from samll budget, charming indie movies like Moon and Cube. And so the developers thought of stepping into the gaming indie market. But obviously, the gaming industry doesn’t provide as easily with the means of producing games.
"All in all, Reset looks like an absolutely stupendous game that seems to already have made a throb throughout the gaming community all over the world with its brilliant concept, breath-taking graphics and the developers resolute and adamant decision to stick to their beloved project."
But that didn’t deter the duo from nurturing their project further. They wanted unprecedented graphics in the game, with a non-linear storyline and gripping game mechanics. But they also wanted to stick to the short storyline they’d come up some years before that. After having coalesced the aforementioned ideas, the conversation that followed, is best left untouched. It went like this –
“But we need at least a budget of a gazillion bucks and ten truckloads of devs to pull this off, we don’t have that kind of money.”
“Yeah true, that is a major drag. But hey, I know, I have a great idea. What if we just ignore all that?”
“Hey that’s an excellent idea!”
And that’s how Alpo and Mikko carried on with their idea, later on taking to crowdfunding but still working on a limited budget. But the milestones they have reached even after being in such situation is laudable.
All in all, Reset looks like an absolutely stupendous game that seems to already have made a throb throughout the gaming community all over the world with its brilliant concept, breath-taking graphics and the developers resolute and adamant decision to stick to their beloved project. All this point toward the fact that it’s going to be a gaming behemoth in the near future and reasons more than enough have been cited earlier to make anyone believe why they should support this upcoming marvel of a game: Reset.