What clicks may come

August 31, 2011 8:44 AM

Trauma is an escape-the-room -dream game with a hauntingly beautiful aesthetic that tells the story of a young woman recovering from an accident. It is a cross-platform download or can be played in its entirety for free in Flash.

Kill Screen's review (mild spoilers).

posted by Thomas Tallis is my Homeboy (9 comments total)

The "movie" got stuck at 95%. Eventually I reloaded the page and got what I guess was a level chooser or something. I chose one and it got stuck at 1%.
posted by DU at 8:59 AM on August 31, 2011

This looks very cool - I am going to try it out tonight. It looks like there might not be a lot of depth there from a gameplay perspective, but it certainly looks interesting from a storytelling/implementation perspective and I love seeing what indie developers can do.
posted by pazazygeek at 10:03 AM on August 31, 2011

For me it seems they've struck a good balance between keeping me interested enough to continue digging around and pure frustration lol.

Of course a very, very high esthetic doesn't hurt.
posted by victors at 10:12 AM on August 31, 2011

There's certainly some nice design going on in it. I found the paintstroke navigation tiresome, though.
posted by Thorzdad at 10:21 AM on August 31, 2011

I noticed that on Steam recently, but couldn't decide whether it looked worth seven bucks or not. Opinions?
posted by rifflesby at 11:14 AM on August 31, 2011

...couldn't decide whether it looked worth seven bucks or not. Opinions?

I dunno. I wasn't getting anything interesting from the gameplay. It's just click-click-click with some dreamy navel-gazing dialog. I had no feeling that I was going anywhere with it. I lost interest and bailed.
posted by Thorzdad at 11:52 AM on August 31, 2011

Very nice design indeed, and I liked the photo-angle gameplay, but the general story left me a little cold (I have to confess that I didn't have the patience to get too far in though).

It makes me wonder if you could take the Photosynth tech and add some simple hotspots and collecting mechanics, and do the same thing but purely with real photos. I'd love to see what photographers could do with gaming.
posted by adrianhon at 1:08 PM on August 31, 2011 [1 favorite]

argh I can't find photo #1 in "What They Expect" or its "pick up the windfall" ending. Or photo #7 in "The Road Less Travelled", I get told it's "nearby" in two places under the bridge but can't find it. EVERYTHING ELSE. Maddening. Anyone got a walkthrough link?
posted by egypturnash at 4:38 PM on August 31, 2011

egypturnash, here is a youtube walkthrough of "The Road Less Travelled". That youtube channel has a walkthrough for all of them.
posted by adso at 6:49 PM on August 31, 2011 [1 favorite]