[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Marie’s Room, sometimes nostalgia doesn’t provide a happy feeling.

[/vc_column_text][vc_message icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-steam-square”]Purchased: Steam
Achievements: Yes
DLC: No[/vc_message][vc_column_text]Games where you simply look around and pick up objects to discern events have always been a necessary break for me after I play a lot of battle games, or even games that make me think way beyond my thinking capacity.

So when I came across Marie’s Room, it looked Life is Strange-like, and that in itself was intriguing.

It also plays a bit like Serena, which is another pretty short story-rich point and click game.[/vc_column_text][vc_zigzag color=”peacoc”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]

Pros:

[su_list icon=”icon: thumbs-o-up” icon_color=”#0ea224″]

  • Good story
  • Melancholic soundtrack
  • Free

[/su_list][/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]

Cons:

[su_list icon=”icon: thumbs-o-down” icon_color=”#c90906″]

  • Storyteller is bland and lacks emotion

[/su_list][/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_zigzag color=”peacoc”][vc_column_text]

Navigation

You’re stuck in a single room, observing what you can and recalling the past, so there’s not a large area to navigate. The main objective is to simply look at everything you can, or want.[/vc_column_text][vc_zigzag color=”peacoc”][vc_column_text]

Graphics

Aw man, prepare for some nostalgia from Life is Strange if you’ve played it before this one. Not that it’s completely the same or there are any easter eggs to LiS, but it’s pretty much the same thing.

The graphics aren’t amazing, but it’s all very well done for a room that holds the past of a couple young friends (or “friends”, as the case may be?).

It’s the things you kind of expect, but moving the paraphernalia aside, the lighting is great as well. What with the hanging lights (which certainly put me in a LiS thought cycle).[/vc_column_text][vc_zigzag color=”peacoc”][vc_column_text]

Gameplay

The main part of the gameplay in Marie’s Room is observing the things around you.

Once you’ve observed specific things, there will be journal entries made. Once enough entries are made, you’ll be able to complete what you need to do to finish your business in the childhood room.

It’s not much in regards to gameplay, but it plays very well. It’s a narrative-driven game, so if you’re not fond of these, I’d stay away.[/vc_column_text][vc_zigzag color=”peacoc”][vc_column_text]

Audio

OK, here’s where the faulty bit of Marie’s Room comes into play.

Much like Life is Strange, the main character we play is so…dull-sounding. There’s no emotion there.

She doesn’t sound like she’s reading from a script or anything. It’s not as if she’s a robot. It’s a good voice, as far as voices go, but there’s no life to it. When you recall something, there should be some emotion to things. I get the fact that she could be distancing herself from the memories as she recalls them, but I doubt that’s the case.

I just think there’s no life to her, even when she’s trying to put some emotional value into her words.

Aside from that, the soundtrack is amazing. There’s nothing in-your-face, it’s all melancholy and reminiscent. Some of the songs will remind you of music from other games, or even things that have happened in other games.

But I suppose that can happy with any kind of soundtrack.

Still, this one tugged on some memories of my own.[/vc_column_text][vc_zigzag color=”peacoc”][vc_column_text]

Overall

It’s very short (less than an hour, perhaps) with no save feature, but it’s very much worth the play is you like narrative-driven games. Aside from the voice acting issue of mine, I enjoyed it.

Plus, it’s free. What’ve you got to lose?[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]