videogameblog

SPOILERS!

really enjoyed this one. i opened it a couple of years ago and had no idea what to do. i think i was playing it on screenshare with someone and they something about 'going into the files' to progress. i did NOT have the energy for that at that time so I closed it. revisiting it made me realise i was a moron and all i had to do was solve an extremely juvenile puzzle for the game to really open up. You explore a world that's slowly dying due to a lack of light (dark souls moment). The player character is Niko, 'the messiah' who's being directly guided by you, the player, to install a big lightbulb at the top of a tower to restore light to this world. Niko is aware of your existence and regularly converses with you, which feels really unique and fun even though similar concepts have been done before.

Most of the puzzles you run into throughout are reminiscent of old point and click games, prompting you to combine a coffee tin with scissors to make a metal plate and then combine that with magnets and tape to form a makeshift elevator button. when i first realised this was the style of puzzle, i expected they'd eventually hit a spike in difficulty that would become frustrating. Thankfully this never happened, and i was able to solve most puzzles in the game without using a guide. The real standout puzzles, though, are the ones that take place outside of the game world. You'll find a password in your desktop folder, move assets to different files and run external programmes to get through.

experimenting with the interaction between the player and the game itself is a little played out at this point but i've never played anything that structures itself around it so confidently. it really works out in its favor, too; being prompted to look for the solution to a puzzle in 'the most easily accessible' area of my PC had me scanning my desktop icons for a while only to realise the wallpaper itself was the solution!! some of the direction is unfortunately a little clunky when it comes to this aspect. like they can't figure out how to tell you to go look in a specific folder so you just find a note that says 'C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\OneShot'.

You move through 4 main 'areas' as you play through, and none of them overstay their welcome in a way that makes the pacing feel really good. The size of the areas really assists the puzzles, too. You're never combing through an area looking for the thing you missed. Moving at such a quick pace does prevent characters from being as memorable as some are in other games, but it helps more than it hinders the overall experience.

I still prefer the subtlety of UNDERTALE's approach to the metanarrative-NPC-awareness concept, just because it catches you off guard so often. I appreciate how central it is to the narrative in OneShot but it can kind of get in the way of itself sometimes while its trying to explain the intricacies of how what's going on makes sense. This isn't a problem at all until the Solstice portion of the game, and I like the first run alot more because of it. The first playthrough still has direct interaction between the player and the main character with the player being perceived as a kind 'god' of sorts, which still employs a good level of meta-ness without going overboard. The second playthrough goes a little crazy though and has the main character finding out they're in a video game and you're playing it which was a little too much for me.

Despite this, the 'solstice' playthrough (which takes place after the main game, acting as a NG+ of sorts) has some of the strongest moments OneShot has to offer. recontextualising the original areas and moving through them for a second time with entirely new characters and interactions is a really interesting idea for additional content. It expands on some of the unanswered questions that did leave the first run feeling a little underdeveloped in the narrative department. I especially liked the final sequence, the concept of robots being 'tamed' is so cool and I wish they'd expended on it earlier in the game.

Overall, OneShot is a really inventive and unique puzzle game that kept me engaged through its entire runtime. The characters, music and artwork are all really well-made and charming. Definitely check this out if you like UNDERTALE or Omori, it feels extremely reminiscent of both of those. This may be my first video game soundtrack vinyl purchase if I dont give in and buy the undertale one first