One Shot

Although it's been around for a few years, the game One Shot just recently got an updated (paid) re-release and a major update that turns it into a much more complete experience. It's also been picked up by at least one major Let's Player (Markiplier), and if other's follow suit, it's likely to get a major bump in popularity, so now seems like as good of a time as any to make a thread for This Underrated Gem of a Game.

edited 27th Mar '17 1:03:10 PM by CaptainCapsase

I just finished the new patch, and this is a very good game. Some of its biggest strengths are the incredibly unsettling atmosphere, how it really gets you to care for the main character, and as the steam page puts it; "A lingering feeling that you're not getting the full story unless you know where to look". By necessity the Solstice content alleviates that last point some, but it more than makes up for it with "I can't believe I've been crying for the last three hours".

Played three times, to get all three endings. Though I want to play again just to try to get the last few remaining facets of George that I haven't seen yet, it just wouldn't feel the same at this point, what with the World Machine telling you that it would only be a recording of Niko from this point on, because the real Niko went home for good. Yeah I know it's the exact same experience, but just knowing it's not the real Niko there... kinda takes the magic out of it.

I wouldn't say unsettling as much as desolate. It really nails the atmosphere of a "dying world", and prior to the Solstice ending (which makes up for it with the sheer D'AAAAAW), it was fatalistic and dreary right to the very end.

Yeah, talking to people that are just "having the sun back would be nice, but the world's still ending" was quite sad. The first real gutpunch was meeting Maize. Man, the writing for this game was solid.

edited 29th Mar '17 7:29:56 AM by danime91

It was, though, to use the most obvious Counterpart Comparison, I don't think the characters were really as strong as in Undertale, with the arguable exception of Niko. On the other hand, it does a lot more with the meta-narrative (and IMHO has a stronger plot), and it's not like the characters are badly written.

edited 29th Mar '17 8:28:14 AM by CaptainCapsase

Eh, they weren't, but then Undertale was the longer game, and characters stuck around to be interacted with for much longer. Also, the very nature of the world as a simulation and all the NPCs are literally NPCs justifies it somewhat.

edited 29th Mar '17 8:29:09 AM by danime91

The Solstice ending implies that not just the Entity but also the NPC characters in its world have also been "tamed", at least the ones that end up following Niko into areas of the world the entity did not have access to, so that shouldn't be the case.

edited 29th Mar '17 8:31:56 AM by CaptainCapsase

Yeah, but a Solstice run is even shorter than the already short main game, so even if they were able to exhibit more characterization, they weren't exactly around long enough to do so in a lasting manner. In the end I think it comes down to length. Undertale simply gave the player more time to get to know the characters. In One Shot I think you only stick with one set of characters for about 30 minutes at best, and the actual amount of different dialogue and interaction with each character makes it much shorter.

edited 29th Mar '17 8:42:39 AM by danime91

Yeah, which is a shame. The lack of a similarly inventive battle system compared to Undertale is a major downside; I could easily see something that makes use of the game's meta mechanics; ie you need to edit enemy armor values to make them vulnerable then run a command via the _____.exe to reload the enemy stats, and other similar puzzle fight mechanics.

edited 29th Mar '17 12:07:16 PM by CaptainCapsase

Mary Cagle is doing a LP of this game and made some adorable endcards for each video.