Introduction
Gamedec is an isometric sci-fi RPG, set in an imaginary Cyberpunk world of Warsaw. The game is developed and published by Anshar studios. It was first released for PC in 2021 and has now arrived for PS5 with all the bells and whistles of modern machines.
The game is based on a collection of short stories written by Polish sci-fi author, Marcin Pryzbylek, who worked closely with the studio. Gamedec is an acronym for Game Detective where you play as a detective to solve mysteries in a virtual world. According to the developers, “Gamedec is a non-combat RPG where you progress by making choices and there are more than one angle to approach a situation and solve the issues”.
Gamedec is an extremely fascinating idea for a game. At one point in the game, I was trying to seduce twins and at the next moment, I was jumping down a well to wake up in the cemetery. The game has multiple nested ideas and they all complement each other. It took me two playthroughs and around 24 hours to experience the game properly. The definitive edition comes with two additional stories, Cthulu and Seven Demons, which I recommend playing after finishing the game first.
Story
Let’s talk about the most important aspect of any game and, particularly in this case, where the game feels like a visual novel, you have to read for over 10 hours. This is a very daunting task and to keep the players invested, it has to be extraordinary. Sadly, this is not the case. The story is where the game suffers the most.
The game has a very promising start with lots of mysterious happenings. The game is set up in an imaginary city of Warsaw that has been taken over by nature and the people have to hide below the surface in caged cities. The city is divided into four levels. High city (a place for wealthy people with access to sunlight), Mid-city (living quarters of the middle class living from day to day), and Low city (where it is pitch black even on a sunny day). And beneath all of this, lies the ruins of old Warsaw.
You start your journey as a Gamedec and the choice is yours to either select High or low city as your place of origin. If you are from the High City, you have to be extra careful when traveling to the Low City to accept cases, as you may not be familiar with the life there, and can be conned by the residents. The world has been divided into two parts. Reality (realium) and virtual game worlds (sensory worlds). To avoid the harsh realities of life, people have developed various virtual reality games where they spend most of their free time. But it also attracts the scum of the earth. To keep the players protected from invaders (hackers/viruses), Gamedec is a very important and lucrative job in the city of Warsaw.
I am going to keep this review as spoiler free as possible. The story revolves around you being hired by a bigwig CEO to help his son stuck in a virtual world named “Twisted and Perverted”. The big mystery starts and you are forced to go through various worlds with each having its own set of rules. Like in Harvest Time, you have to play as a farmer to earn cash and upgrade your farm. Paradise Beach acts as a dating world and Knight’s Code is an MMORPG where you have to follow your clan’s code. Solving the mystery of each world, you realize that everything is connected and there is something seriously sinister going on with this world. Due to its branching narrative and lots of bloated text, the ending left a lot to be desired. The ending sequence plays on-rail, and sometimes you are stuck with the options you don’t want to choose. The game does a bad job at explaining the story to the players, and you have to go through codex for lore and story hunting (these are my personal grievances as the game is already text-heavy and further reading is definitely not desirable).
The sensory worlds are all unique and have their own unique rules. Harvest time forces you to play a farming sim with a dash of political commentary. My favourite is the Knight’s Code, where you have to perform duties assigned to you by the clan leader for a particular amount of time (the time progresses with your actions). Sadly, this world is very short and leaves you wanting more.
Presentation
The game plays from a top-down camera perspective. It has a fixed camera that plays an important role in hiding secrets from the players. It also forces the player to explore every nook and cranny in search of clues. The right analog stick is used to select between options (if there is more than one available).
The game starts with character selection. You can select your own character, but the choices are very limited and you can’t change your avatar at all. Given the game is an RPG with way too much emphasis on the player’s choice, it is a massive letdown. The gender selection is also limited to binary.
The game offers crisp visuals and some of the prettiest vistas in video games. The game also has a lot of accessibility and graphical options to choose from. The frame rate can be unlocked and various other settings can be adjusted to make the game run smoothly with higher frame rates. Seeing these options in console games is always a great thing. And this is definitely a plus in my books. Overall, despite being an indie game, the game has visuals on par with AAA games.
Gameplay
The game is text heavy with an emphasis on exploration to find clues related to the case. The game has no gunplay involved, even if you find a gun in the game. The only way to shoot someone is when you are given a choice in the game. The game is an RPG because of the choices you make when talking to others or doing a particular task. Some tasks are irreversible and don’t give you any clue about them. Selecting these options can progress the story, limiting your options to revisit and get more clues by talking to NPCs. The game has two modes when you start a new game. One is where you can revisit your choices (better for the first playthrough) and the second, is where your choices play like real-life scenarios (can’t go back and change them). So be extra careful in each case, as some choices in the normal mode are irreversible too, and developers have done a poor job of explaining this part.
The gameplay involves moving your character and interacting with NPCs. You are then presented with choices that you can make by selecting from the options available. The gameplay has a really good twist here, which distinguishes the game from visual novels. The game lets you be a detective and helps you to deduce a conclusion depending on your findings. The more clues you find during an investigation, the better your chances of finding the truth. Each case has multiple branches leading to the end of the case.
The game also has a job system where you earn various attributes depending on how you behave. You can earn anger by behaving rudely or compassion by being caring. These attributes are used to unlock various jobs which aid you with your investigation. For example, if a robot is not answering, you can hack it and extract its data if you have the proper job unlocked (programmer). You can also use your influencer charm by unlocking this skill to introduce yourself to major players in the game. You won’t be able to get all the jobs on your first playthrough and it can be frustrating in the latter half of the game, so my advice is to keep your attribute points unused and only invest when an opportunity presents itself.
The game has lots of puzzles to solve and this is where your codex comes into play. All of the clues are hidden in the codex and it is really not nice to explore. It is not user-friendly and bad for the eyes. Towards the very end of the game, there is a puzzle that can only be solved with the help of codex. I wish there was a better way to implement this feature in the game.
Performance
This is one topic I really want to talk about. The game suffers from some really serious performance issues. From your apartment to Harvest time, I have to find a single world where the game doesn’t have micro stutters. Sometimes they get really bad to the point of the game crashing. The game starts crashing more toward the end of the game, especially when it is autosaving. The developers need to work a lot on optimization. Also, the character sometimes gets stuck in the environment or the objectives disappear, resulting in the need for a reload. Such things don’t break a game but distract you from having fun.
Closing Words
Gamedec is a game with grand ideas and a massive story, but a lack of polish and proper execution stops it from reaching the heights it is aiming for. Sensory worlds, despite being unique, are way too small to be enjoyable. Voice acting (where it is present) is also average and is never convincing. The ending sequence takes away all the fun, making it a chore to sit through. The game shines on the second playthrough, but to convince someone to invest at least a dozen hours for the experience to actually begin is not practical. For every positive the game has to offer, it is burdened with an equivalent negative.
Verdict: 8/10
“A beautifully crafted Cyberpunk dystopia where a world-ending mystery looms over its inhabitants. Such a grand plot is marred by improper execution and poor gameplay implementation“.
