Get Even (2017)

TLDR at the end.

Being quite interested in trying Farm 51’s newest game due to its STALKEResque visuals, I decided I would first give their previous title Get Even a go because a) I found the mechanical and visual concept quite appealing, b) it was already on my backlog, and c) that’s kinda what patient gamers do. When I beat the game, I felt I had just been through a mini-rollercoaster ride, one that made me simultaneously grapple with the good and the bad of indie gaming in one swift gulp. At its core, Get Even is an incredibly alluring concept, enveloped in a cocoon of effectively grim and eerie visuals, intriguing, dark and mature storytelling, and novel, promising mechanics. At its execution point, however, it’s an ultimately disappointing game that left me even more frustrated because of the potential shown throughout my playthrough.

The fact that this can be seen as an FPS left me slightly apprehensive, since it’s very easy for smaller studios to really miss the mark on this front. But to my surprise, gunplay was actually better than I had been led to believe, not exactly weighty or particularly well realised, but definitely serviceable. The problem lied with all the parallel issues that came with the game and couldn’t be ignored. The worst of it for me was the terrible navmeshing in one particular level. I lost count of the amount of times I got literally stuck on the ground, unable to move or do much of anything other than watch my character spasm uncontrollably until I reloaded the previous checkpoint. It was beyond infuriating because I wasn’t even ‘offroad’ most of the time: at one point, I intentionally started keeping myself on the clearly designated path as much as possible (it was an area filled with enemies which didn’t help), yet the same thing kept happening. I eventually made it through, many attempts later - it’s a bit ridiculous for a game as unpolished as this not to have a save system -, but this particular location, which you’re forced to revisit twice, was almost enough to put me off the rest of the game entirely. If you add to this: the fact that Get Even doesn’t exactly offer the best design clarity on open levels; or that it doesn’t boast a very competent stealth system whilst at the same time always encouraging stealth; or that it features such an interesting, original tool as the CornerGun but narratively (and mechanically) coaxes you into not using it; or that it suffers from really weird sound inconsistency, randomly giving you appropriately creepy tracks as much as it throws at you bizarrely misplaced pop music (an absolute mood killer); or that, for all its accomplished visual atmosphere, it also comes jam-packed with terrible texture work for 2017 standards (which is of course particularly noticeable in a 1st person game)… well, you get the point. There are a lot of technical issues with Get Even, and not only did I leave with the impression that there was no sensible reason for at least half of them to be there, I also ended up with the feeling that this game doesn’t work all that well with a controller, which is something I rarely, if ever, think about these days when playing games.

Yet through all these hurdles, I still had an enjoyable time with Get Even when I was done. A massive contribution to this came from its narrative theme and story beats: although I didn't think the pacing was consistently good across the board, I still thoroughly enjoyed the mystery that the game guided me through. Get Even presents an interconnected web of sub-stories, events and character motivations, being part mystery, part whodunnit, part horror, part psychological thriller, part grief-riddled drama. Sound design attempts to kill the mood notwithstanding, there was a sense of heavy tension and loaded intrigue throughout most of the game that kept me invested despite its technical mishaps. For some reason, during my playthrough I often remembered Bioshock 2 and the time I spent in its hubs trying to piece together the story surrounding Sofia Lamb. Not that the Get Even is in any way similar to Bioshock from a story viewpoint, mind you. Thematically, it lands somewhere in the vicinity of Memento and Inception, a sort of memory Russian doll where each experience begins to untangle the next piece of the puzzle it conceals. Visually and tonally, it reminded me a lot of the internal struggles experienced in the first Max Payne, with its dark introspection and emotional reckoning vibes. In the end, Get Even weaves different types of threads into its intricate story, delivering a couple of unexpected moments and a (at least to me) clearly satisfying conclusion. This is aided by some solid voice work - particularly for a small studio -, truly interesting ideas, surprisingly competent AI elements, and several cool mechanics that, though lacking equivalent quality in implementation, I can’t help but appreciate and applaud.

It had been a while since I’d played an indie game that encapsulated such a wide array of conceptual highs and execution lows. Get Even was a timely reminder of what these games can bring to the table, the struggles they sometimes go through in their quest for mechanical polish (especially in the 3D space) and, in my opinion, their most fundamental contribution: relentless, healthy creativity. In an industry often marred by the exact same design tropes, AAA game after AAA game, Get Even forced me to remember why I love and will always support the indie scene: I will happily tolerate its technical flaws, infuriating as they may be, because I know chances are its breath of fresh ideas and intriguing concepts will, more often than not, lead to an enjoyable and rewarding gaming time. 7/10

A game that will essentially make you hate the whole experience until the very end which is decent. I really wanted it to be a game that gets me hooked immediately because you can clearly see there's a lot of people that put effort on it but it really does feel as if it drags on fairly early because of how dull the gameplay can be and how STRETCHED THE premise is.

Perhaps if they gave me an FOV slider I wouldn't feel clausterphobic too, also again, it is a game that gives you a cool as fuck gun and goes "actually, don't kill anyone" and my first reaction TO THAT IS WHAT! If you don't follow those instructions you get a bad ending; Also the "bad ending" wasn't really much of a "bad ending". That bad ending is just today.

It doesn't help that the game is often times tonally all over the place, not only in the idea that it gives me a good weapon mechanic AND I CAN'T EVEN USE IT. But the fact that when I sound the alarm in a stage, funky music starts to play. This game has the most serious tone, and then out of nowhere it has an anime-like theme song, but by far the WORST flaw of this game is that the stealth system is so janky that i'm just gonna go for the bad ending and ruin everything due to it.

And then... The last segment, hoo boy. I was actually pretty okay with this game until that point because it seems as if the last segment the enemies have aimbot and you have the health of a bug. Also: I cant get over how this game won sound design but its soundtrack can be very annoying and repetitive, sure there are some interesting tricks. After all of that it's like: hey this is what you fucked up and had no idea of because some of the choices seem random [wastes minutes showing them]

The plot is sorta like if Black Mirror and Inception had a baby. And the premise is very interesting and some twists are very predictable yes, like I called the ending from THE VERY FIRST MISSION fun fact, I WAS LIKE "ohhh but what if", and I accidentally spoiled the whole thing. As for horror: there's really none, it feels tacked on there on the plot, and the color tones are very MUDDLED, anyways going back to the plot: It's interesting but namely because they took a boring subject and stretched it enough for it to be interesting, you'd think with such a plot device you'd do something bigger with it, but it's fairly simple really.

But yeah there are a lot of clashes, a lot of boring moments, the fact that I cannot jump is kinda of a pet peeve too, just a series of tweaks could've saved this story and made it more entertaining but it is A DEEPLY flawed game, and the story is alright but even that they could've made more interesting with it's premise.

Get Even is a psychological thriller adventure game which boasts some of the best sound design I've heard in years. The way the soundtrack plays directly into your surroundings (by remixing the sounds of a passing train, your characters' breathing, mental patients' singing, etc) is just phenomenal and together with the terrific voice acting and writing it makes for a riveting experience. That said, some of the other aspects of the game fall a bit flat.

The shooting mechanics for example, while serviceable, feel like somewhat of an afterthought. And while it's definitely a nice change of pace for a 'walking sim' to have the player feel vulnerable; I never felt the need to go in all guns blazing, especially when the game actively tells you not to. Considering your choices also have a (minor) impact on the story it seemed best not to bother with murdering my way through the game. You can subdue enemies and later also do err.. other stuff, to them but it was never really explained if this would also have negative consequences. Further the game is marred by a gamebreaking bug which has you get stuck on parts of the environment with your only way out being to restart the game. This will result in times where you have to redo entire sections and is obviously incredibly frustrating. Performance wise it will run just about fine on high-end hardware but still suffers from big dips in FPS, which is odd as the game doesn't look anything out of the ordinary.

All in all though I really enjoyed my time with Get Even. Its fantastic audio design elevates it above the mere B-game and its story kept me captivated throughout. If you're a fan of Psychological Thrillers then Get Even should be right up your alley.