Hypnospace Outlaw

11/29/2020:
Between a 9 and an 8 on this bad boy.

First of all this might be one of the coolest and cleverest games I've ever played. It is a spot on recreation of the internet circa 2000. All of its warts and all of its charm. It's aesthetics are so on point both visually and on the audio front (more on the audio later).

I think what really defines it is how effective the world building was done here. Hypnospace has its own memes, it's own lingo, and its own history. Almost all the characters are connected to each other, sometimes in obvious ways and sometimes in ways you have to hunt down and connect on your own. And the characters are so fleshed out. By the end you really get a feel for where certain information for puzzles would be based on how you understand what the characters would do or where they would haunt on Hypnospace.

World building brings me to possibly my favorite part of the game, the music. Not only does it have really great music, it has really terrible music that perfectly fits the era and aesthetic. It has jingles for all the brands like a soda brand that gets spun off into a whole genre, Coolpunk, the butter ice cream (?) thing, and a bunch of others. But here's the best part, the great music has its own lore. There's a page called Slushmouth's Guide to Music or something that literally maps out the genesis of all the subgenres of music in the game. And they're all made up. Not only that but there's minutes and minutes of proper songs for each genre that are showcased in the guide as well as across Hypnospace by the fans of the music. I bought a whole album in real life by a made up Swedish jazz fusion group called Klyfta. It features 10 minutes jams that are in the game. Fucking incredible shit.

In addition there's a whole plot that weaves its way through where Hypnospace ends up killing people and you need to get evidence on the offenders. It's solid and I was along for the ride.

Let's not leave out the humor that is part and parcel of the whole experience. Reading the account of Coolfest 99 on the Dumpster when all I heard was mention of "a traged at Coolfest 99" is one of the funniest things ever. Chowder Man as a whole is so fucking funny. Literally just Limp Bizkit. Counselor Ronnie which is just so perfectly funny on its own-- is then made up by another character in the universe. Fuck me it's great.

Ultimately the only thing that soured the experience for me was the fact that at its core it's a puzzle game. You're given tasks and things to look for and then have to piece together how to get access to them in the software. There's a lot of non-obvious steps that need to be taken or you get stuck. Maybe I'm stupid but I got stuck a bunch and it really slowed down my roll.

All in all, I think I'm going to go with a 9, because while the puzzles soured it for me, the rest on display is so utterly captivating and original--the fucking music man-- that I can't help but tip my hat.

RIP Kuff

12/30/2021:

Dropping this to an 8. While I think as a creative achievement it's incredible... Ultimately I don't think it was really fun enough to have it stay at a 9.