GoKawiilHey, look at that, my second video game review this year. It seems I’m on some sort of roll.
So, it was a Friday evening, and I was browsing my Steam library for something to play. As always, it’s a surprisingly difficult task. Like many Steam users, I’ve got more games than I will ever find the time to play, most of them amassed during various sales over the years. And more often than not I’ve just ended up browsing though my games, not actually playing anything. That’s the sad state of my gaming life these days.
But even though I rarely play any games, there’s always a Steam sale going on where I - also like many Steam users - can purchase more games that we’ll never play, perhaps not even install. On this particular Friday, I stumbled upon a sale by publisher Devolver Digital, a publisher that often releases fast paced, arcade style games, a genre I usually tend to steer clear of. I still own a few Devolver Digital games, though, like Hotline Miami, Broforce, and Katana ZERO, which I even reviewed, all of which I’ve picked up on - you guessed it - a Steam sale.
During this sale, a game called The Red Strings Club was available for a couple of bucks. It was described as “a cyberpunk narrative experience”, and the Steam reviews praised the world building, the sound track, and the pixel art graphics style - all of which tickle my fancy. So I clicked the purchase button, telling myself that this time I’d actually play a game I bought on a Steam sale.
And I did. Congratulations, me!
Meet your bartender.
Welcome to The Red Strings Club
A large part of The Red Strings Club is about bartending, which is another reason why I purchased the game. Even though my alcohol drinking days are more or less over - I’ve realized I prefer a good night’s sleep and an early morning to the alternative that alcohol literarily brings to the party - drinks and bartending has always fascinated me. It also helped that on this particular Friday, I’d gone wild and poured myself a glass of Tamnavulin Speyside single malt whisky, which made everything, including purchasing games on Steam sales, sound like a great idea.
The Red Strings Club starts out like pretty much every adventure game. A little chatting, a little world building, generally setting the scene. There is a lot of weird ass stuff going on, like implants and androids, and it’s all very cyberpunk, something I tend to enjoy. Then there is the drink mixing mechanism, which I, if I’m being honest - and I tend to be - didn’t really find that interesting or entertaining.
By mixing different drinks that enhance a certain mood or feeling in the people who pour it down, you’ll get different answers to your questions. This unlocks different story arcs, making it possible for the player to complete the game in many different ways. My problem with having many different choices that will actually have consequences for the game play is that I’m always worried I didn’t choose the best path through the game. But my main issue with having a lot of options, is that I won’t get to experience the whole story without playing through the game multiple times. A book is linear, I get to learn the whole story. In a game with choices like these? Not so much. This is not a problem with The Red Strings Club in particular, though, it’s an issue I have with the genre.
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