SpectralTime
Since: Apr, 2009
11/09/2021 00:00:00
I am actually friends with a man who has got more than a decade of experience making adventure games, and I’ve always felt bad telling him that the “chat bot“ games he made with some of my least favorite. He himself admitted that, while they were personally some of his favorites, he had to stop making them because they were niche projects that weren’t attracting audiences.
In that regard, I guess I just consider the “chat bot“ style to be fatally flawed from the get-go, but I know older adventure game fans often consider puzzling out the obtuse wording of puzzle inputs to be part of the fun. Maybe it appeals to them?
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Overly ambitious but unintentionally hilarious
In most games, there's usually a "correct" way to play them- for example, there isn't much to do in Space Invaders besides shoot the aliens- although more complex modern games allow a bit of leeway. Facade is a game that's perhaps most fun when you're not playing as intended, for better or for worse.
In the game, you visit two of your friends who are married, only to find that their marriage is troubled despite their attempts to pretend otherwise. You must get to the root of the problem and work out their issues, which is harder than it sounds.
Unlike most games that feature conversations as a key part of gameplay, there is no dialogue tree here; you have to type in your own statements, whereupon the AI will respond accordingly... or at least it's supposed to. It can often be hard to tell whether any given statement you make has the effect you intend for the couple, especially considering that there are some strange reactions (most infamously, Trip throws you out of the apartment if you say "melon.")
Speaking of the couple, they're both deeply flawed people. They're temperamental, dishonest and almost incapable of accepting responsibility for their poor life choices. You'll have to walk a narrow tightrope to save their marriage without offending either of them enough to kick you out of their home. Considering how poorly they get along, and how their marriage is seemingly built on lies, one has to wonder whether you should even bother saving it.
That said, while a system in which you say whatever you want to is difficult to make work if you're trying to play the game seriously, it provides you practically infinite options for fooling around. You can say the rudest or most absurd things possible, roleplay various scenarios, or do whatever comes to mind until Trip removes you from the apartment.
The production values are so-so at best. The graphics are lackluster, to the point at which I wonder if the game would be better off being purely text-based. The music decently sets the tone, but is rather forgettable. Trip and Grace's voice actors can express their characters' emotions reasonably well, but are fairly amateurish. The ability to put in your own name, and their saying certain names aloud sounds a bit jarring, so I wish they had given the Player Character a Gender-Blender Name like Alex or Chris.
All in all, Facade isn't a bad game, but it's a bit too ambitious, so it's best enjoyed by fooling around in-game; if you want to see the game through t the best ending, it would be best to watch a playthrough on YouTube.