There’s an opinion I’ve shared to many unwilling participants that centers firmly on the movie Inside Out; you know the movie that’s the pinnacle evolution of Pixar’s core narrative theme of “what if X had feelings”, coming full circle to ask the question: What if feelings had feelings?! I have no reservations saying that, for much of the movie, Joy is an unrepentant psychopath as she absolutely refuses to believe that any other emotions are valid parts of the human experience. Of course I get that this is part of the journey that we see Joy go on, is there really growth if can’t address your own faults, but it bears mentioning because that theme of focusing on joy, happiness and other positive emotions forms the core block of Subliminal’s opening premise. It, of course, falls wildly apart after that again echoing the Inside Out’s format in more ways than you’d expect. Also purely by coincidence they both got about the same amount of time out of me which, unfortunately, speaks more ill for Subliminal than it does anything else.
Ah Caleb, welcome. You’re here to go back to the past and find those memories of pure joy, love and happiness. We’ve found here that focusing on these memories helps with our process immensely, helping us to form a core of wonderful experiences that we can then use to build on further. Now, of course, everything you see here isn’t real and has been designed with your utmost safety in mind. So just relax and listen to my voice, we’ll be getting to work shortly, and remember to stay on the path that I set for you. We don’t want you straying too far from your happy core now do we?
The work put into the assets of Subliminal can’t be understated as they are right up there with numerous other games that have gone for that pure, photorealistic aesthetic. There’s no doubt in my mind that a lot of time was spent wrangling photogrammetric assets, refining the lighting to get that harsh fluorescent glow and so many other processes and details that I’m blissfully unaware of. The result speaks for itself although I will admit the screenshots don’t really do it justice as it really something else to see it in motion.
Subliminal isn’t a walking simulator per-se, although it’s really not far from it. The core game loop is exploration based, having you explore through the environment you’re in to find things, discover puzzles and generally get familiar with the environment before you tick off that one thing it wants you to do to progress. There’s a number of what are effectively quick time events without the on-screen prompts for the…higher-tension sections of the game but apart from that there’s really not much that changes from level to level. That being said though the problem that I had, and many others did it seems, was just how weird and intractable most of the puzzles are, something which the narrative unfortunately can’t make up for.
The opening sections of the game weren’t too bad for this as the mechanical complexity was low and the narrative pace felt right. However that all slows down significantly in the following levels, especially when it’s not exactly clear just how you’re supposed to progress a particular section. Suddenly you’re running around in circles, wondering if there was some switch or pattern you simply didn’t recognise all the while the narrator is completely silent and the environment gives you no further clues as to what the narrative might reveal.
Which had me asking the question of whether or not I’d seen everything I needed to in order to make an assessment of it after only an hour and a half. The honest answer was yes and it was mostly because whilst the game was making an attempt to draw me in with the bit of worldbuilding it did at the start it failed to capitalise on that in any way. I know, doing full voice overs for games like this is an expensive endeavour in all respects, but the many games that Subliminal takes inspiration from were good because they made that investment to make sure that the player was still engaged even when the puzzles were failing them.
To their credit though the devs have heard this feedback and are taking steps to make it more approachable to a wider audience. Despite what a few vocal detractors have to say on the Community Hub that’s a good thing and something I hope we see more of. You really have to look no further than how Supergiant games changed up the narrative of Hades II based on the critical reception it garnered to see how these things can be for the better. Art can be art for its own sake but there’s much to be said about making it fit an audience. We may not be asking Banksy to change the colours of Girl with Balloon, but you sure as shit can find enough examples of people doing exactly that because that’s how they’ll enjoy it.
Anyway, getting off my philosophical high horse here, this puts Subliminal firmly in the category of wait for now. Whilst it gets so many things right the puzzle pacing and overall narrative means there’s just not enough there for me to recommend it right now. I’m glad the devs are listening and maybe there’s hope that future episodes will pull me back but even should that happen I think I’ll be watching a Let’s Play before I dive back in myself.
Rating: 6.5/10
Subliminal is available on PC right now for $14.50. Total playtime was 1.5 hours with 4% of the achievements unlocked.
