Thirty Flights of Loving (2012)

Thirty Flights of Loving and its prequel Gravity Sock (packaged with the TFoL) are weird games. They both seem like student art projects or products concocted in a game jam. The graphics are very basic. There is no combat. And the levels are very very linear. They are walking simulators in the strictest sense and the story is fed to you through environmental details. They are not traditional video games and that's the point.

Gravity Sock is a spy thriller, where you play a spy, completing objectives assigned to you in a briefcase. Thirty Flights of Loving is a crime story, where you and two close friends plan to commit a robbery.

TFoL is an excellent showcase of maximizing every minute of the game time to serve a point. GS is not as successful as its' successor as it tries to weave in some platforming puzzles that didn't need to exist.

Both games can easily be completed in under a half an hour. And they both tell two interesting stories in less time it takes for some games to even finish pouting their epic story filled with lavish, realistic cut scenes. Turns out it was pretty refreshing to play something that told a competent story and valued my time.

Note - this includes Gravity Bone which was packaged along with this game.

Thirty Flights of Loving is a criminally quick and supremely stylish little adventure that pulls the player through an alcohol heist and an action-packed struggle.

This game is a sequel of sorts to Gravity Bone, which is also included. Both games feature WASD key and mouse movement with the ability to interact with objects. A lot of the interactions are fairly humorous and move the plot forward in a linear fashion, but use disorienting and at times wacky smash cuts and set pieces. Drunken and dancing crowds floating into the sky? Peeling oranges in the moonlight? Silhouette police stand-off?

The game is light on any challenge, being more of a little interactive movie (while Gravity Bone has specific objectives, like giving out wine and photographing birds). The mood, music, and visuals, however, are all a joy to experience. Taking a stylish spy thriller and setting it to cute little cube models and smooth music makes the absurdist humor worth another ride for the developer commentary alone. It might be a bit pricey for such a short experience but if you can get it on sale it'll be an excellent rush.

I did not enjoy this game. It's just a bunch of confusing rooms and poorly-animated character interactions. The environments and graphics were ugly, even if the art style is meant to be simplistic. The gameplay seems to be split into 2 stories: Thirty Flights of Loving and Gravity Bone. TFOL is just exploring various environments; there is almost no interaction by the player other than walking. Gravity Bone has more interactivity, with items to use and quests to complete, but it is still extremely linear and vague in terms of what is happening.

I do give this game credit for attempting to tell a story without voice or dialogue, but it was executed terribly. Maybe I just suck at infering things, but I could not follow what sort of story this game was trying to tell.