Obedience: Loved, 2012

Loved is essentially made up of platformer gameplay, interspersed with black screen-white font inquiries. the gameplay feel is dire, and the environment with which you must traverse is bleak, like a sort of hell, emptied of all color. As for the black screen moments, they are grave. The tone of the game is perfected with these little breaks of dialogue; everything is determined, somber, unwilling to turn. The very presentation of these black screens almost invite rebellion. The game opens with just such a screen, asking,

"Are you a man, or a woman?"

There is something incredibly rewarding about defying the wishes of an evil god; he tells you to turn left, you turn right; he tells you to not to do that, but you do it anyway. In your defiance you possess more power than him.

But this is because this god had no power to begin with.

The idea of an evil or merely crafty god (or at the very least, a narrator) interacting with the player, determining gameplay, is sort of interesting. In this case, the gameplay is not necessarily determined. It can be if you allow it. However, you are given the option of disobeying the commands of whomever is at the helm of existence. And this ability is scintillating. It makes the gameplay of Loved sort of a counter-gameplay. And the results are quite interesting.

Though Loved is short, it is fascinating. Its aesthetically pleasing environment will have me thinking back to it, fondly, and often. And of course the dialogue is intriguing. Because of these things, I will return to Loved again. Play this one and please feel free to let me know what you think!

Loved is the product of Alexander Ocias.


platform utilized: browser
genre: platform
where to find: Play, and feel Loved, here.