This game made me think.
The present article is a review I wrote while playing the game One Chance. I talk about my experience and how it affects the gameplay.
(beware, spoiler Alert!)
I have found the cure. Cancer is now cured. I discovered a cure that kills cancer cells, and this is great. The only thing that bothers me is that a message tells me that in six days, all living cells will be dead. Strange.
This is a game about choices. A simple game, but meaningful. You control the scientist John Pilgrim. You have a wife, a kid and a job (that’s where you found the cure). Your goal is to move right (->) with the arrows, listening to people – or sometimes just walking through them while they behold you – going through new screens/ environments, interacting with elements. The game consists of six days. At the start of each day, you start in your bedroom, moving to the right to reach the hallway, where you can go to your daughter’s bedroom and the bathroom, reaching then the exit. Outside, you often see the daily newspaper with the latest news. Some good, some bad. You car is right besides. Get in to go to work. It’s interesting how the player cannot go back (going left) sometimes. This maybe has to do with some decisions we take in our lives.
One intelligent thing this game does is: you canNOT replay it. This is why the game is called One Chance, right? This really simple game design decision forces players to stop and give time for themselves to think deeply in each decision they will take, making them all even more meaningful. Smart!
The wife
Each new day is presented slightly in a different way: you find your wife and daughter on a different place, doing different things from the previous day. The NPCs may or may not be where they were before, and their actions when seeing you would change. As day passes, the mood is nicely translated through the colors, which gets colder and lifeless tones, as also by the number of apples on the apple trees, decreasing in number day by day. An interesting point here is with the main character’s outfit. You control someone who appears to be really respected, with a great reputation (you discovered the cure to cancer, right?): you were featured on the newspaper, and you are always wearing your white coat.
On the second day, I try to get in my lab but it’s locked – maybe it’s because of the last discovery? The thing we thought was saving us from cancer will now kill every form of life? I then walk to the roof, and find a fellow doctor who can’t take the pressure and jumps. Suicide.
After the fourth day, Pilgrim – the main character – is not wearing any more his doctor outfit, like if he had lost his compromises, and you see his wife lying on the bed asking him if it’s really necessary to go to work today.
The work
I think: What should I do? Should I leave my wife? Maybe she’s right…?
Then, I leave the room. What do I see? My kid. My little sweet daughter that on the previous day, was inside her bedroom asking whether she had to go to school. And now, where is she? She is in front of me, on hallway – on my way to go to work – sitting besides her friendly teddy bear. This is sweet.
I think, with my heart: What now? I have my wife. I have my daughter. Oh… what do I do? I know that in four days, all living cells on Earth will be destroyed. What do I do then? Should I spend the last few days of my life really close to my family – what matters a lot for me -, enjoying the last minutes we have to stay together alive, or should I force, push myself to work to – at least – try to find the cure?
I know at this point that there is a chance for the cure to be found from me, as I am that almighty doctor who had found the cancer cure: a gas cure which would kill the cancer cells. Unfortunately, on the next day we read the newspaper to learn that cure was more destructive than I and the other doctors had thought, even after running a thousand tests. What a mess. What now? Everything is now so… deep.
I go outside. I go outside because, even with all the love a man can feel for his family, and the deep wish to stay close to them feeling their really meaningful human warmth, I will die in four days. This is sad, indeed. So, I think:
I will die in four days anyway. Of course, there is my family. And it is for this exact reason that I will go to work today, because this may be the last and only chance for the human race – and all living cells -, especially my family, to survive. If I unfortunately fail, at least this would be the best thing I could have done to them. I may be the hope.
Should I go back to home, or work for the cure?
To tell the truth, this has something to do with my real personality (I’m talking about myself [Anselmo] right now). I hate when something may go wrong/ is going wrong and there is a chance for someone to try something to fix that, and simply no one seems to care. Nobody tries, at least giving a try to succeed. How can one succeed without trying properly? I try.
That’s why I told doc. Pilgrim to go to work.
You see? I’m now spending more time writing about One Chance than actually playing it (the game is actually running in another window), and look how much this already made me think. This is something I love about this great experiences games can offer to us. I make the decisions here. This is decision-making. It’s me who chooses to go to work, stay home and etc. I really feel the experience of this game. This way, the designers had succeeded to transfer such an interesting emotion through this really simple game.
Back to work – really.
The bedroom. I don't use my white coat anymore.
I was even offered a seductive offer: to enjoy the last day on Earth with a women of my work. I reject in one shot. I really have to work.
Should I get crazy and skip work with this woman?
I get home at night. Oh. My. There is… blood! Coming from my bathroom! I am worried. No. That can’t be possible…!
Where is my wife?! Oh man, oh god, oh man...!
The music even stops. The game is mute now. I agree when someone says the sound design is part of the game design’s interface. It really is an effective way to connect the game to the player’s heart. Silence.
With such a game, I find strange how my daughter can’t suspect anything after seeing the bath-tub full of blood. C’ mon…! That’s shocking!
Daughter, close your eyes!
Later, on my last but one day alive, I have to choose: should I take my daughter to the park, or take her to my work, where I can experiment with a new cure?
What should I choose for the best of my daughter and me?
I feel regret. Molly sees corpses. Now, after working without success, this day is the last one I’m alive.
I’m convinced that Pilgrim is moving a bit slower. Is it a psychological effect I’m having because of the experience, or this is really happening? Anyway, it seems right for the context.
After working for the last time, Pilgrim sits in his office and closes his eyes.
I can’t to anything else but stand looking at this scene:
The last day at work and everything...?
Am I dead? Is it over? Where is the cure? I could swear I was going to find the cure! I hope this is a bug. The experience was fun.
One Chance: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/555181
