Finished Master Reboot! Some impressions!
I kind of went into this game without knowing what to expect. And I can already see why this game is a bit hard to explain. It's an exploration game, but really exploration is somewhat limited and the game is fairly linear. The game is a horror game, but then it also is rather silly and really only parts of it are horror. It is described as a puzzle game but I wouldn't say that fully is true either.
Essentially, the game is about a future world where something has been created called the 'Soul Cloud'.Its a system where people can upload their memories, personality, and other traits of themselves into a saved system so then that data can be inputted into an artificial body, or to visit inside a constructed virtual world of the person's memories, linked together in a Tron-like hub world. The premise is interesting, and the story isn't bad, but I also didn't really find myself fully engaged in the story.
What the game really is basically is a series of levels that all have things in common, but also are pretty drastically different. In one early level you have an axe and you chop down trees in a forest. In another, you are driving a car and avoiding incoming traffic. In another, you are on a beach and using a metal detector to find a specific treasure. In yet another, you are on a plane and some sinister glowing-eyed flight attendant is hunting you, and you have to avoid being seen and caught by her.
This makes it sound like I'm explaining a minigame compilation or something, but it's not like that. The gameplay has core roots that are consistent, and the core mechanics of the game and some general design philosophies remain the same, just the objective and style of level you're in changes. It's also notable the game leans more in a an atmospheric direction than anything, so typically these goals are pretty fluff for the fun of it, and are rarely challenging, except for a few specific levels that are quite a bit more intense.
Music is good, and some of the graphics are honestly pretty to look at. A mixture between a clean smooth look and some vibrance and detail put into them.
It's not really one of those walking simulator 'experience' games, but I also can't think of another word to call it other than an experience game. The game does have puzzles, but most I thought were pretty easy, though sometimes they can be harder to work out as the puzzles are never really explained to you, you sort of just have to figure it out. This is true of a lot of the game's objectives, actually. The game hardly explains anything to you, you just sort of experiment and figure it out, though most of the game is pretty lazing so this is not really a problem. There are threats though, and sometimes far more pressure is put on the player to do things quickly and accurately, or to survive entities that can kill you. I will also admit while I wouldn't say the game as a whole was hugely terrifying, there were a few good scares that got me, and one level in particular legitimately made me freak out.
The variety of settings is also nice. You'll go through everything from a park, to a school, to a circus, to a hospital, to a beach, to a plane, to a library, and more.
I am going to say to give it a try if you are interested in experience-type games with a horror edge to them, and a bit more gameplay than what one may typically call an experience game. It's not the best game ever, it's missing that sort of impacting narrative or exceeding quality to it, but it does everything pretty good and I think its a good bit of fun while it lasts. Not super short either, lasting about 4-7 hours.
