The Infinite Ocean

I'm going to reiterate what I said in my review of The Day, some art games are genuine art while others are the product of a hack code monkey using pretense to make us think their garbage is acceptable.  Now, the awesome thing about this game, The Infinite Ocean, is that, while its totally an art game, it doesn't really sell itself as an art game.  This is a good thing for those of us that run away from art games like they are the plague because we hear 'art game' and think "pretentious hack code monkey."

You see, this is an art game wrapped in the more safe point and click genre, which isn't a bad route to go at a development standpoint: if you're good as a pixel artist but suck at programming making 'buttons' and 'scenes' in Adobe Flash doesn't require much in the name of Actionscript.  But wait, there is a hate on point and click games as there have been many poorly made point and click games out there with crappy storylines and no sense of logic to the 'puzzles' within.

So, to the million dollar question: should you play this game?  To properly answer this I will have to look at it from two difference angles.  Angle one being does this work as a point and click adventure title, and the other being does it hold high artistic merit... that an art game should have.

As a Point and Click game

You start the game as some dude with amnesia... yeah, that trope has popped up yet again, who is in this room with computer screens and stuff.

This room in fact

To take a moment to comment on the colour scheme: its black and white.  I'll get back to that later.

Anyways, gameplay involves opening doors, reading computer terminals, finding items, and combining passwords to open up more computer terminals... wait, what?  Yeah, whenever your reading a computer terminal you can scan what you are reading for passwords, or fragments of passwords that you can later put into a computer terminal, to not only get more passwords and password fragments, but to also read up on hints and act one plotline points.

You can get passwords simply by reading paper

As par with the genre you are gathering items and using item A on surface B.  Now, in a bad point and click adventure game, because a bad point and click game uses monkey-moon logic, you find yourself rubbing everything against everything until there is a reaction that advances the game.  Now, are you doing that here?  Actually, not really.  For the most part what you have to do next is pretty intuitive... that is if your willing to read the hints on the computer terminals and on scraps of paper littering the various rooms in what looks like a bunker of sorts.  Even in the password hunt you don't have to scan everything you read, as it will be made clear in the message that there is a password to obtain.

Read this for Autism Spectrum Disorder joke!

Now, there is a degree of backtracking that occurs in the game, but nothing that would make you cursing early Metroid games for popularizing the concept of backtracking... as some of us aren't into that sort of thing.

Now, the music does give an eerie vibe that accompanies the grayscale colour palette with the only problem being that it loops to the point of annoyance.  Sure, hearing a choir of monks chanting has this spirited quality to it for the first while, but, like most pieces of music, wasn't designed for a computer game and becomes annoying after the hundredth iteration.

Overall, as a game it works.  If you hate art games this game's wrapper is well done enough that you wouldn't notice that you're playing an art game.

As an Art Game

Now, for those of you with a taste for the 'finer' things in life, or are a pretensious douche, I can assure you that this game has material in it that is proof that games can be high art.

The point and click mechanics really have much to offer, as not everything that is to be read is intended to be a hint in how to get into the next room (or a place to get more passwords).  You see, there are many things that this game uses to tell a narrative, and a pretty dark one at that.

There are many references to the game title in this game

For one thing, the game tells you to 'ignore the walls,' which makes sense as in the walls of text the game throws at you tell you about a sentient artificial intelligence known as SDGS, who upon first glance is a precursor to GLaDOS from Portal.

SGDS would do well making demotivational posters

SDGS actually becomes a sympathetic character: as sympathetic as the other characters: like Jerry for instance.  The story goes that this development team is contracted to create a sentient AI for the sake of achieving such a goal.  At some point the project gets hijacked by the government and the team was made to weaponize it.

Now, I used the word 'characters' in a loose sense as you do not run into another person while you play the game.  The characters, SDGS, Jerry, Leonard, Alaxandra, Jullianne, John, and General Fields are all told through the notes and computer terminals, each coming to life and serving a narrative purpose.

As I was playing the game, it dawned on me that this game was advocating peace and tolerance, using General Fields as a strawman for those of us who think war is a good thing and that we must go to arms to protect the world from the 'bad people' in whatever form they take, the development team being passive aggressive resisters, and SDGS logically concluding that war is horrible and to be avoided at all costs.  And while I can't be sure, I think the PC was Jerry the codemonkey all along.

Overall, I have to say that this game was the closest to a spiritual moment I've ever had, and I encourage people to play it for that reason alone.  However, I understand that the above statement is going to scare some of you off, so if you must, play it because its a competent point and click adventure game with a solid storyline and doesn't require you to follow a walkthrough to complete.  It you hate reading I don't think you should be playing this, however, as you will have to do a lot of it to appreciate the plotline within.