State of Mind is an adventure of science-fiction. The game is played exclusively in a single player.
In the early 1980s, faced with a major leap in technological advances, a team of people led by William Gibson began to write texts about the fears and possible dangers of a technologically advanced society. They wrote about the rejected artificial intelligences, cyborgs, the rule of megacorporation, the segregation of the rich and the poor. These texts were called cyberpunk, and they contained elements that eventually expanded throughout the whole genre of science fiction. State of Mind is primarily a narrative game that takes over most of the determinants of that genre in its cover, but nevertheless manages to find its own voice in it.
The State of Mind leads us to Berlin from the end of the 40s of the 21st century, on the streets of a light-filled neon that comes with numerous advertisements; leads us into a society in which cybernetics, artificial intelligence and technology have advanced to the level that there is a certain danger that machines will completely replace people. The protagonist is Richard, a renowned journalist and a great proponent of the direction in which his society moves.
Richard experiences a mysterious car accident at the very beginning of the game and returns home after a short stay in the hospital, where he realizes that his wife and son have disappeared. So begins an investigation that will, through the centers of megacorporations, alternate underground clubs and bring in contact with resistance fighters, to come to the solution of the case. Once confronted with the possibility of virtual human existence, Richard will force himself to think carefully about what exactly means to be a man.
These are things that are very likely to be known to fans of SF and Cyberpunk, just like the vision of the world of the near future that was designed by Daedalic Entertainment. But while other works mainly focus on deeper research into several topics relevant to technology and digitization processes, State of Mind wants to "eat the whole cake".
The initial result is impressive. Getting to know Berlin with the future really opens up space for reflection thanks to numerous mysteries. The city appears to be alive and megalomaniac, something intriguing is happening at every corner, and many questions are asked for each answer. It is difficult to determine the central thread that plays game events and interactions between Richard and the contact characters that look organic and convincing.
The graphic appearance of the game is equally impressive. Low-poly style fits perfectly with what you want to apologize. The result is, in one way, pervaded by the problem of humanity that penetrates through the work, while at the same time it is in line with some of the neo-futurism architecture that can be seen in the appearance of numerous buildings. Daedalic Entertainment has found an imaginative and quite meaningful way to adapt the technical limitations of indie games, such as stiff animations, to the needs of narration, or material.
State of Mind is playing so poor gameplay that it is difficult to find a better description of the epithet interactive movie. Do you remember writing that the beginning of the game gives the impression of a living and megalomaniac city that Berlin should have been from 2048? It is a feeling that quickly disappears once you realize that there are countless skyscrapers and beautiful horizons just behind the action that takes place on a very limited number of locations. The aforementioned streets, clubs, office places are eternally invariable and interactive content is a poor place to go through many times, and every re-visit is almost the same as the previous one. These places seem to be just so much to give the provisional feeling of playing the game.
State of Mind is not a walking simulator - it's a third-person adventure, in which the pace is fast, but there's little gameplay. The more or less entire course of the game is reduced to speed through several repetitive locations in order to reach the point where the new directional scene will unfold. If nothing else, the game is not tiring to play, and the absence of a specific gameplay is again a better alternative to repetitive experience.
There and there will need to solve a puzzle or hack a computer, but for the most part it can be said that the game plays itself. In conversation with other characters, there will be a possibility of selecting the answer, as if giving some freedom to the player, but all this is false. There is a natural question - why is it all, Daedalic Entertainment, why selecting video games as a medium to tell the story if players at least will not be able to participate in it?
Fortunately, the story itself is very interesting and partially rescues the lack of meaningful gameplay. It is full of turnarounds and unexpected changes, leaps in perspective and is generally very solid in how real life is associated with those virtual. It is most likely at the very beginning, when its unbiasedness gives space to different topics to breathe, and a number of relevant questions are raised. Some of them are politically painted, others are concerned with human race and its limitations, the third is the advantages and disadvantages of technology.
State of Mind is a big ambition that obviously has a lot of love and the efforts of its producers. Her world has presented cyberpunk in a way that introduces a welcomed fresh air into the genre. With its graphic style and sound background, the familiar atmosphere has provided the opportunity for a new kind of vision, and for the sake of stories and characters it is worth keeping in Berlin. The lack of specific gameplay and pretty straightforwardness are the main reasons why the game can not be recommended to anyone. It all depends on how willing you are to sacrifice gameplay for the purpose of the story. Thousands of games have a gameplay better than this, but if you can, on the narrative side, put the idea of an interactive movie in almost the full sense - keep in mind that there is an authentic German sweetheart in front of you.
