Photopia

by Adam Cadre profile

Slice of life
1998

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Reviews and Ratings

5 star:
(274)
4 star:
(184)
3 star:
(69)
2 star:
(21)
1 star:
(3)
Average Rating:
Number of Ratings: 552
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- Mike Root, March 23, 2015

- Keiya, March 15, 2015

- Thrax, March 11, 2015

- Asherred, February 27, 2015

- Matt W (San Diego, CA), February 19, 2015

- prevtenet (Texas), February 15, 2015

- hoopla, February 15, 2015

- besmaller (Portland, OR), January 28, 2015

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Integrated graphical effects and strong emotional impact, January 19, 2015

Photopia has been an influential game. The amount of interactivity is small, but the story drives the game along. As has been mentioned, the emotional impact should really be classed as manipulative, but it is effectively done. The author manages to put the player into the skin of a number of different roles and also to make the reader identify with characters at different stages of their lives.

The underlying "story within a story" is pitch-perfect. Probably because it appeals to the wish fulfillment natural to games (or gamers?). The outcome of the game ends up being telegraphed about half way through, but this leads to the emotional punch and drive of the narrative. From then on, it unfolds remorselessly.

The greatness of the game is its ability to remain in mind after one has played it and yet be fresh on replay.

An important game. Emotional reactions will differ, but I would categorize it as touching. (Spoiler - click to show)Few mazes are as satisfying as the one in Photopia. We all have wings...

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- openmedi (Berlin, Germany), January 17, 2015

- Jallarial, January 16, 2015

- morlock, January 14, 2015

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Fantastic color themed game!, January 10, 2015
by Chai Hai (Kansas City KS)

I loved this! I loved how each part was themed by a color, and finding how everything fit together was really well done.

Having random words defined in parenthesis irritated me at first, but later on it was part of the charm. In the end, that became my favorite POV.

I've always been a fan of multiple perspective games, watching the story unfold from various perspectives and piecing everything together is always enjoyable for me. This game does it beautifully.

Beautiful game. Marvelous.

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- Iakampa (Poland), January 7, 2015

- dutchmule, December 23, 2014

- BlitzWithGuns, December 5, 2014

- VarunG (Mumbai, India), November 15, 2014

- Janice M. Eisen (Portland, Oregon), November 10, 2014

- siquis (Scotland), November 7, 2014

- EllaClass, November 5, 2014

- Witchy W, October 20, 2014

- Khalisar (Italy), October 4, 2014

16 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
Eh...I feel like I'm missing something., September 24, 2014
by akaisha0 (Omaha, Nebraska)

I feel like this game is entirely lost on me. I saw this on so many top lists and read so many fantastic reviews I had to give it a try and I admit my hopes were far higher than they should have been. This game was a colossal let down for me. I make it no secret that I prefer text adventures to "interactive fiction" but I felt this offered me neither. I appreciate that it tried (and succeeded) at doing something new with non-linear story telling with time and the wonderful use of color. But beyond that it was dull and uninteresting. This can't be called a game, a story, or even an experience. It just fails on all counts. Photopia is easily played in less than an hour and the hardest puzzle for me was trying to figure out how to exit the garage. This game is not interactive which would be fine if it told an interesting story, but it failed on that count too. In the beginning you're led through disjointed tales under the assumption they will likely culminate into a larger scheme. The problem is..they really don't. You can infer a reasonable bit by the end of how it all pieces together but it leaves entirely too much to the imagination and gave me absolutely no reason to care. I didn't care for any of the characters or situations, I kept playing out of the assumption this was going somewhere and it didn't. This story was beyond a let down. It has so many wonderful reviews and I can't tell if I'm just not pretentious enough to see it for what it is or if I just saw through it for what it was: a dull, lifeless, uninteresting, "story". It wasn't a game, it was hardly a story. I think you should play it to judge for yourself. I think it stands as an important piece of interactive fiction history and certainly influenced games that would come after it but..even as a catalyst for a brighter future of IF games, I can't praise it.

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- Matthew Darby (London, United Kingdom), September 20, 2014

- Sobol (Russia), September 12, 2014


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