I’m genuinely very glad that I had the opportunity to play this game again. The first time, my group was entirely lost and the other group members just did not seem to enjoy the concept of the game in general. I did not realize we were playing this game this week, so I showed up to class unprepared, but the game demonstration helped a lot. I think although my group was very lost the first time we played, having at least a little knowledge of how the game works was reassuring when we were trying to figure it out again. The first time I played TIME Stories, I left with more questions than answers, but I appreciated the artwork and mystery element to the game. This is definitely the most immersive game I’ve played, and because of that, I think it’s a new favorite. Playing this game feels like I’m in a video game or movie, but I like that we have choices and can come back to rooms or decide as a group how we want to go about playing the game.
Week two of this game felt a bit more intense than week one. I think I liked the exploration phase of week one better than the more calculated game play of week two. I was glad that we had some group members that really understood game play and could remember all of the choices we needed to make for the second time around playing the game. For the second week, I definitely took less of a leadership role and more so followed the members who seemed to have a plan in order. To be honest, I don’t know how people would play this game and successfully complete the mission the first time, just because I feel like there’s a maze of steps that need to be done in order to successfully complete the game, and there’s too many dead ends that can cause your team to die or run out of time. I did enjoy how the game ended for the most part, I feel like it made sense to the story, but I also felt like it was slightly uneventful. I don’t know exactly what I was expecting but it felt like it was just suddenly over.
To be honest, I don’t think most of my friends would be able to sit through an entire game of Time Stories due to the time commitment. I think I understand it enough now to where I can explain how to play, and they won’t feel too overwhelmed by the complications, but convincing them to play a 4 hour long game with me is asking a lot. I think in order to convince them, I would have to explain to them how the game works in advance, and give them a few details of the plot to gauge their interest. However, my friend Josh might enjoy the game because he enjoys video games and I feel like this game demonstrates some video game-like qualities. Josh also likes to fully commit to things he’s doing and doesn’t like giving up and also does not like losing, so I feel like he would be more likely to sit through this game than other people because of the challenge. Overall I think I would play another version of TIME Stories. I don’t know if the zombie game that follows the asylum version really sparks my interest, but some of their other plots might.