The latest in a series of goofy mock-adventure games, this time with the addition of flash animations, minigames, music, IM conversations, and an extraordinarily complex, dramatic plot. The result is... odd.
This is definitely one that Broke The Rating Scale, if only because it's nothing familiar. Even as webcomics go, it's stranger than Dresden Codak, more convoluted than Sluggy Freelance, more hopelessly nerdy than XKCD, and more bipolar than It's Walky!, all by a thousandfold. Reading it, and seeing it referenced around the internet, can't help but give the sense that you're seeing something beyond a comic, almost a force of nature.
In a way, it's terrible. The tone is all over the map, the characters are difficult to relate to, the haphazard pacing physically hurts sometimes, the humor is groanworthy as often as not, and the dramatic moments are difficult to take seriously in a strip taking place in a caricatured world, a world in which wholesale genocide is treated less seriously than the phobias of the most minor named characters. And yet, in a way, its aggressive disregard for convention, the operatic mixture of absurdity and drama, is its greatest draw; it manages to be truly different without being completely offensive, and so it demands respect.
For that reason, there's really no way to evaluate it. Its existence is worth more than its content. There are snippets of good music, good animation, good jokes, and some genuinely dramatic moments, but that's not its value. The sheer audacity of such a thing existing, something that's to webcomics as webcomics are to older media, is enough to read it. Maybe someday, this will be seen as breaking new ground, but for now, it's a novelty that has to be experienced to be understood.
So here's my advice: When you've got a few hours free, get a bit drunk to handle the pacing, and plough through the archive. I can't say exactly when, but eventually you'll be glad you did.
Homestuck... is.
What can be said about Homestuck?
The latest in a series of goofy mock-adventure games, this time with the addition of flash animations, minigames, music, IM conversations, and an extraordinarily complex, dramatic plot. The result is... odd.
This is definitely one that Broke The Rating Scale, if only because it's nothing familiar. Even as webcomics go, it's stranger than Dresden Codak, more convoluted than Sluggy Freelance, more hopelessly nerdy than XKCD, and more bipolar than It's Walky!, all by a thousandfold. Reading it, and seeing it referenced around the internet, can't help but give the sense that you're seeing something beyond a comic, almost a force of nature.
In a way, it's terrible. The tone is all over the map, the characters are difficult to relate to, the haphazard pacing physically hurts sometimes, the humor is groanworthy as often as not, and the dramatic moments are difficult to take seriously in a strip taking place in a caricatured world, a world in which wholesale genocide is treated less seriously than the phobias of the most minor named characters. And yet, in a way, its aggressive disregard for convention, the operatic mixture of absurdity and drama, is its greatest draw; it manages to be truly different without being completely offensive, and so it demands respect.
For that reason, there's really no way to evaluate it. Its existence is worth more than its content. There are snippets of good music, good animation, good jokes, and some genuinely dramatic moments, but that's not its value. The sheer audacity of such a thing existing, something that's to webcomics as webcomics are to older media, is enough to read it. Maybe someday, this will be seen as breaking new ground, but for now, it's a novelty that has to be experienced to be understood.
So here's my advice: When you've got a few hours free, get a bit drunk to handle the pacing, and plough through the archive. I can't say exactly when, but eventually you'll be glad you did.