地下基地6:邊境

>Pointless (無意義)—(zkelly3)

好吧，看來就是這樣了…
我找不到任何繼續堅持下去的理由。
沒有人會過來的，我一直以來都是個笨蛋。
沒有意義…

>Protocols (協議)—(zkelly3)

不要更改協議。
如果你這麼做的話，他們會把你鎖在裡面的。 我以前曾經看過這種事發生。
這可不是個從這裡消失的好方法。
不管怎麼說，我已經受夠了。
我絕對不會再進去那裏了。

>News flash (新消息)—(cvcv152)

他有沒有跟你說過你不是第一個被送來這裡的人?
那麼，最新消息，我的朋友…

(more…)

先在這說明遊戲的子機(Submachine)和子網路(Subnet)兩個特殊名詞。
簡單來說Submachine是一個個異次元空間，然後Subnet是Submachine的總稱。

地下基地0:古蹟

>結尾

你獲得了遠古的智慧水晶…
智慧給了你無窮的力量，使你找到了自我的人生道路…
好好利用它吧。

地下基地1

>日記1

去年夏天，我到肯特的大瀑布下露營。這對我來說是一次意義重大的旅行，雖然其他人都不能理解。確實，我是在旅程中失去了左手，但管他的呢，我發現了自己其實擁有第三隻手，一隻隱形的手。自那之後我便開始學習如何運用我的”業力之手”，並很快地將這股力量運用自如。
當人們開始覺得我像是瘋子或怪胎而疏遠我時，我並不感到意外。不過有趣的是，我無法像他們說明真相，這就像是跟一條金魚解釋太空旅行一樣沒有意義。所以我只好試著…

(more…)

– What first sparked your interest in making your own games? 

There came a moment when my computer skills grew sufficient enough to comprehend the  then-emerging game building software for noobs and not-really-programmers, meaning – me. The year was 2001 and the software was ‘the Games Factory’. Though it had it’s limitations, I was able to create my first platformers using my own graphics (strangely enough – it was graphics from my comic book “the Morfs” which resemble Daymare Town. So even back then I was kinda going in the right direction). Of course things got a bit more advanced once I was introduced to the Macromedia Flash software. That was in 2003. Still hooked on platform games I discovered website lazylaces.com which was a hub for escape games, unfortunately it’s no longer active. After playing some of those games I thought: “Wait. I can do this better”. And I created Submachine. The rest is history.

– Is making games now your full-time job?

Yes. It’s been this way since 2008, so for more than half of a decade I’m doing nothing but my games to put food on my table. Best half of decade ever.

– Are you autodidact or did you follow art education? Are there other games or game designers that you feel have strongly influenced you?

The closest I got to actual artistic education was studying architecture on technical university. That actually gave me the ability to look at game design from a slightly different perspective. That’s why I call myself games architect. Other than that – no, I never attended any artistic school nor taken any classes or courses. However it took me 15 years to finally learn how to draw so that it doesn’t look like crap. I already knew how to tell comic book stories by then, so it clicked nicely.

– If you had to name one of your games you’re most proud of, which one would it be and why?

I think that would be Submachine 2.  It was the largest leap in my game dev advancement. Of course, each game that came after that was more complex and better, but this one marks that moment when my abilities just blew up. My eyes opened back then.

– Do you have an entire series planned out before you create your first chapter or do you continually expand a series?

No, of course not. That would actually be pointless and kind of stupid. You see, when you create a series, new ideas pop up in your head from time to time, and planning ahead would mean disregarding those ideas. We’d loose a big chunk of content and storyline this way. I create my games the same way I create my comic books. Often I start the story and don’t know where I’ll end up with it. Good example would be Daymare Town 4. Through out almost entire development I had a different ending in mind. But the game evolved is such direction that I found a new ending, the one that;s better suited for the situation we were currently in. Normally a player doesn’t see that, but each game is jumping through countless parallel universes, where in each the storyline takes a different turn. My job is to float with it and steer the story in the right direction.

– What was the inspiration for the Submachine series? Would you love to design actual machines?

The works of Amanita (Samorost mainly), Wada Che Nanahiro (Memory Park, Treasure Box, TCB Museum), also Crimson room, Viridian Room and MOTAS. All of them I learned through lazylaces.com. Those were masterful works, I never imagined competing with them. But besides those there were loads of poorly designed and drawn games – that’s where I stepped in. The actual machines? No, I don’t think so. My thing is drawing and telling stories really. Not creating installation art.

– Is submachine 10 going to wrap everything up or is it just going to leave us with more questions?

The tenth Submachine wraps up the main storyline. Which is – us following Murtaugh and Liz through time, space and dimensions. Will it explain everything? I doubt that. That’s almost impossible. If it was to explain all questions then it would be a book, not a game. And that’s why I leave door open for possible submachine standalone games after finishing the main run. Those standalone games would try to answer some burning questions left out from the final game.

– What prompted you to choose the two-color design for the Daymare Town series of games? Is the design process for these games very different/faster than your full color games?

The main idea for the Daymare game was this: how about a game that’s so damn hard – no one will be able to say it’s too easy. How about making it in sketches only. By then I also already knew Nanahiro’s work, and Daymare is kind of derivative from his Treasure Box. Is it faster? No, not at all. On the contrary – when making a color drawing I can just fill some spaces with color and not bother with them anymore, while here – I have to render each surface, each nook and cranny with just lines, shadowing, pores, structure and so on. It’s actually harder and takes longer than, let’s say, creating a submachine view.

– Will we ever see something photography inspired like the 10 gnomes series again? Do you do a lot of photography?

Well, 10 Gnomes are not dead. It’s an ongoing series, since the main project ended in 2008, I’m creating one additional game yearly. Not sure if I’ll be able to keep it up, but for now – it’s going well. Do I do a lot of photography? I don’t think so. Right now everyone with a smartphone is a photographer. It’s nothing uncommon. I am not a photographer, I’m just a dude with a camera.

– Are you planning to bring your games to mobile? Is it helpful when we buy the HD versions of your games?

The mobile market is very unpleasant and unforgiving. When you’re not backed by a large promotional campaign, you’re toast. We learned that the hard way when Pastel Games went mobile in 2008 and in less than a year went belly-up. But – we might try again, this time with a better plan. I can’t really talk about this, but something is brewing. As for HD games – those have literally nothing to do with mobile versions. Buying HD versions is very helpful though. Thanks to those purchases I’m able to live, feed my family and work in peace not bothered by some additional work that I’d have to do for somebody else for profit. I’m self-sustaining entity and that’s something very important to me. The creative freedom that comes with it is priceless. Big THANK YOU goes out to everyone who bought a game from me. Or a comic book. That’s also possible, you know.

– Can we expect more Pastel Games from other artists or are you mainly concentrating on your own games now?

Well, that’s a good question, but addressed to a wrong person. You’d have to ask the creators of respective series. We’re not pushing anybody to work with us and we don’t actually manage those people. Once they do something and it lands on my desk for me to program – then I do it and the game is out. It was always like this, lately those people probably have something more important to do. From what I’ve heard, the Fog Fall 5 is in the works (and has been for the last two years, so there).

– Are you playing a lot of games yourself (web/console/mobile)? What recent games did you enjoy?

Not really. I don’t have a time. Especially since the beginning of 2014 was jam-packed with work (Submachine 9, new comic book, now JayisGames game). I didn’t play anything since January and that saddens me. I have a backlog of games waiting in line for me to play them. They’re even installed on steam, just waiting, updating from time to time…. This line includes second season of the Walking Dead, Metro: Last Light, Hard Reset and lately I added Transistor… The only exception is “the Child of light” – I’m playing that with my daughter in co-op on our PS3.

– What can we expect from you in the (near) future?

In the near future – let’s talk the remainder of 2014. You can expect the entire Submachine series in HD, as well as Daymare Town in HD. That’s plan A. Besides that – probably new Gnomes game and for sure Where is 2015. Besides that – another update to the Submachine Universe (reaching for the 100th location). Comic book wise – I just released a book, but I’ll be making another one this summer. It should be out in October. That’s another book from my Revolutions comic book series. This time it’s entitled “Revolutions under the snow”. That’s all I can say for now. So, busy spring, busy summer and busy autumn. I’ll rest in the winter. No biggie…

by: Bart Bonte

written by Ida Larsen-Ledet

Welcome to the Submachine
An odd welcome. A cubic wooden room with an art-like construction of undeterminable origin on the wall. In the cubic wooden room next door, a vertical pipe with a hole in it. In the room adjacent to that, a grandfather clock without a clock face. Every room you may enter looks the same and contains seemingly arbitrary objects. The only word of welcome or explanation you got was the title menu.

Oh, and there is no exit. Welcome to the Submachine.

(more…)

Ze wszystkich stron oglądasz trzymane w ręku urządzenie. Coś jakby pilot, mocno nadgryziony zębem czasu… Ma miejsce na osiem klawiszy, ale tylko siedem z nich tkwi na swoim miejscu. Z głupia frant naciskasz dowolny z nich…

…i czujesz, że coś się wydarzyło. Coś się zmieniło.

Ty? Świat dokoła? Niby żadnych zmian nie widać. Ale jednak… Hm, a może jedynie w miejscu, w którym stoisz, nie jesteś w stanie zauważyć żadnej różnicy?
Mateusz Skutnik, twórca wszystkich części „Submachine”, informował jeszcze przed premierą, że dziewiąta odsłona cyklu, „The Temple”, jest ponad dwukrotnie większa od części poprzedniej („The Plan”) – pierwszej, której wersję offline HD można było także kupić. „Świątynia” jest droższa od „Planu” – $5 w miejsce $2 – niemniej nie ma się nad czym dłużej zastanawiać: jest to kwota niewielka, produkt jest wart swej ceny (otrzymujemy zipa z wersją na PC, Maca oraz empetrójki z podkładem muzycznym), a polskie produkcje wspierać trzeba.

Gry z cyklu „Submachine” polegają na wędrówce po dziwnych miejscach (w dużej mierze statyczne kadry, nawigacja po bokach ekranu), na których należy odnajdywać przeróżne przedmioty, a następnie (najczęściej w innych miejscach) je używać. Nic skomplikowanego, o ile ma się w miarę dobry wzrok i ochotę na rozwiązywanie prostych zagadek logicznych. Tajemnicą sukcesu tych gier (uznawane są za najlepsze w swej kategorii w wielu obcojęzycznych portalach) jest nastrój. Skutnik na potrzeby gry wykreował Tajemnicę i teraz konsekwentnie ją rozwija. Tajemnica zyskała uznanie wśród fanów z całego świata, których zaangażowanie nie tylko dało sens tworzenia gier-światów pobocznych (jak „Submachine Universe”), ale przede wszystkim umożliwiło uniezależnienie się od kaprysów portali-sponsorów.

Scenerią dziewiątej odsłony gry są podziemia (początkowo akcja dzieje się na powierzchni) południowoazjatyckiej świątyni. Twórca wplótł w kadry architektoniczno-religijny mix tamtejszych okolic, niemniej mowa jest przede wszystkim (nie licząc tajemniczego głównego bohatera, Murtaugha) o Sziwie. Jest to też pierwsza gra, w której Murtaugha można dotknąć… Nie chcąc zdradzać szczegółów fabuły, a chcąc pozostawić graczom przyjemność odkrywania pomysłów autora, pozostaje jedynie dodać, że przejście gry do jej zakończenia bynajmniej nie oznacza… końca gry. Ba, niektóre lokacje czy przedmioty są dostępne dopiero wtedy! Ale uwaga: do niektórych miejsc, po przejściu do końca, nie da się wejść powtórnie. Dlatego warto każdą sekcję spenetrować bardzo dokładnie, nim się przejdzie do kolejnej (każdej wieloekranowej sekcji towarzyszy inny zapętlony ambientowy podkład muzyczny). Oczywiście, czasami element znaleziony w sekcji Y trzeba zastosować wracając do sekcji X…

„Świątynia” kończy się zapowiedzią ciągu dalszego, czyli części dziesiątej. Czekamy z niecierpliwością… i obawą, bo jej zapowiadany tytuł to „The Exit”.

autor: Wojciech Gołąbowski.

Guia de Submachine 9 The Temple:

– derecha 4 veces, coge una palanca
– usa la palanca en la ranura y muevela …
– izquierda, entra en el edificio, derecha 3 veces, coge una jarra
– izquierda 5 veces, usa la jarra en el caño de la fuente …
– derecha, entra, derecha 2 veces, usa la jarra en el cuenco … coge el engranaje verde
– izquierda, entra, usa la jarra en el cuenco … coloca el engranaje, muevelo …
– izquierda 14 veces, mueve la barra de la izquierda …
– sube, derecha, coge el escarabajo
– izquierda, abajo, derecha, coloca el escarabajo en la ranura … coge la parte de una llave
– izquierda, sube, izquierda, usa la jarra en el cuenco … mueve la barra verde …
– sube, izquierda, coge la otra parte de la llave, juntalas, usa la llave en el panel …
– baja, izquierda, fijate en el panel de la pared, selecciona el IIIION del inventario … los botones activan el artefacto de la sala, pulsa el tercer boton de la izquierda … coge la llave
– coloca la llave en el panel
– izquierda, coge el cuenco
– abajo, derecha 2 veces, abre levanta la tapa del cuenco, coge una esfera, luego usa la jarra en el cuenco … coge el engranaje verde
– derecha, coge la llave del suelo
– izquierda 3 veces, sube, derecha 2 veces, coloca el cuenco en la caja y usa la jarra …
– sube, derecha 2 veces, usa la llave en la caja, coge la pieza #1
– izquierda 2 veces, abajo, izquierda 2 veces, abajo, derecha, fijate en la escalera detras de la cortina …
– baja, izquierda 3 veces, click en el agujero de la pared … coge la pieza #2
– sal del agujero, derecha 7 veces, coge la pieza #3
– izquierda, selecciona el IIIION, pulsa el boton inferior de la izquierda …
– usa la jarra en el pedestal … selecciona el IIION, pulsa el segundo boton de la derecha, usa la jarra en el cuenco … selecciona el IIION, pulsa el primer boton de la izquierda, pulsa la palanca
– izquierda 4 veces, baja, derecha, coge una piedra alargada
– izquierda, sube, izquierda, coloca la piedra en el panel …
– sube, coge la pieza #4
– baja, derecha, baja, izquierda 3 veces, coge la llave
– derecha, selecciona el IIION, pulsa el boton inferior derecho … coloca las piezas en el panel …
– baja, izquierda, coge un ojo de la escultura
– derecha 4 veces, baja 2 veces, coge un caliz
– sube, izquierda 3 veces, sube, derecha 4 veces, entra por la ventana, coloca el caliz en la barra, usa la jarra
– derecha 5 veces, baja por el agujero, derecha 3 veces, usa la llave, muevela …
– izquierda 3 veces, sube, derecha, sube, izquierda, coge el ojo de la escultura
– derecha, abajo, izquierda, abajo, derecha, selecciona el IIION, pulsa el primer boton de la derecha … coloca el engranaje en el circulo
– izquierda 3 veces, baja 4 veces, izquierda 6 veces, coge un cuenco
– derecha, baja por el agujero, izquierda 4 veces, sube, derecha, abre la botella y usa la jarra … coge el engranaje verde
– izquierda, entra en la cripta, click en el ataud, coloca un ojo en la ranura … coge la moneda dorada
– atras, derecha, usa la jarra en el cuenco de la estatua … pulsa el circulo para transportarte… abre la radio, coge una llave … transportarte
– izquierda, atras, baja por el agujero, derecha 4 veces, sube, derecha 5 veces, sube la escalera 4 veces, derecha 3 veces, selecciona el IIION, pulsa el tercer boton de la izquierda … coloca el engranaje verde en el circulo … pulsa el tercer boton de la derecha … coge la valvula
– izquierda 3 veces, baja 4 veces, derecha, coloca la moneda dorada en la maquina
– derecha 2 veces, usa la llave en el panel circular
– derecha 3 veces, entra en la cripta, izquierda, coloca la esfera en el circulo inferior … transportate
– derecha, coge la cuerda
– izquierda, transportate, derecha, click en el ataud, usa el ojo … coge la moneda dorada
– atras 2 veces, izquierda 5 veces, coloca la moneda en la maquina y baja las 2 palancas
– izquierda 2 veces, baja por la trampilla, coloca la valvula y girala … usa la cuerda
– baja … derecha 4 veces, selecciona el IIIION, pulsa el segundo boton de la izquierda … transportate
– baja la palanca del panel de control … coge 3 gemas
– transportate, izquierda, selecciona el IIIION, pulsa el primer boton de la derecha, luego coloca una gema en la ranura y pulsa el segundo boton de la derecha, coloca otra gema y pulsa el tercer boton de la derecha, coloca la tercera gema
– izquierda, coge un boton
– en el inventario, combina el boton con el IIIION
– selecciona el IIION, pulsa el boton …
– izquierda 9 veces, pulsa el circulo …

nota.- el juego tiene 5 secretos, puedes continuar y buscarlos (una de ellos esta en la estatua de una vaca, pero antes tienes que bajar la palanca de otra vaca, diviértete)

SUBMACHINE 9 REVIEW

You all know this is coming… The beginning of the end. Submachine 9: the Temple, the penultimate chapter of the legendary Submachine series crafted by Mateusz Skutnik is only a fingertip away from the click of our mouse, tugging at the minds of all who yearn to see the story coming to full circle. And came to (almost) full circle, the story does while also blowing, shattering, and vaporizing all of our doors right off the hinges with some absolute shockers of gameplay and plot twists. Submachine 9 make no apologies with what it sets out to do while leaving us cowering in prospects of our doom, knowing that the entire main series will end soon.

With styles.

—————————

GRAPHIC

Once more, with feelings. Our old song and dance. Again and again, no beginning nor end like the haunting Loop. After the last two jaw-dropping entries that entranced the PNC worlds with their revelatory styles has Mateusz once more enticing everyone with his impressive mastery over art directions. This time around in Submachine 9, the ethereal sci-fi-inspired designs were exchanged for the mystical, spiritual, and religious architectures. Stones wedged within the walls and floors, cracks and growths littered their surfaces, totem and statues and ornaments and the likes sitting in open and corners, taunting and teasing our inquisitive curiosity. The entire Temple are rife with the remnants of ancient times, falling victim(?) as another part of Submachine’s mysteriously abandoned locations.

While such decision may be quite odd given how heavily interwind the series is with many science fiction tropes, the choices are rather inspired and fitting given the nature of the game itself for a few very good reasons I dare not to mention here. Each areas outside and inside the Temple are vividly haunting, serene, and menacing, appropriately given the atmosphere that the entire areas are of sacred value and not to be desecrated. Even many of the series’s hallmark difficult puzzles are crafted as if they’re part of the Temple’s ornaments and are gorgeous to look and interact with. Even the entire architecture serves immensely to the plot as you will find out why while descending deeper into its never-ending abyss.

The only criticism leveled against the game is that some of the main levels are too similar in term of design and construction, though they’re smartly differ from each other by uses of various elements and puzzles to keep you from being too lost in its labyrinth layout. Submachine 9 might delights or disappoints you depending on your preference of art styles, but it will leave you satisfied with how gorgeous the Temple is.

Score: 9.8/10

—————————

SOUND

Your ears will bleed in happiness for the acoustic and soundtrack of Submachine 9 are phenomenal. Not only the entire soundtrack ranks against the likes of series’ best in Sub_2, 4, 7, and 8, it could very well be the very best in series. The tunes continue the proud traditions of evoking ominously haunting and oppressive atmosphere, fitting so perfectly within the style of locations, and being marvelously memorable. What made this installment special is how extremely fitting the soundtrack is within the sequence of game and the emotions of plot so efficiently as the tunes blare and beat perfectly with your awes and shocks and dread.

Even the tunes are delight to listen as they are full of characters and also perfectly fits the style of the entire Temple. The richness and quality of soundtrack made itself into a unique kind of beast all of its own that elevates the whole game convincingly against the other critical darlings in its own series.

Thumpmonks has outdid themselves once again.

Score: 10/10

—————————

PLOT

You know those sounds raging across the internet lately?

MINDS BEING BLOWN.

Who knew that chasing after Murtaugh and Liz would reach toward something like this? Being the penultimate installment of the main series, Submachine 9 wastes no time revealing itself to answer many of our tantalizing questions and creating several new ones. At long last, the entire plot of Submachine are starting to be made clear, starting with a lone and seemly inconsequential note back in Submachine 1: the Basement. Details being scrounged and analyzed, theories are shattered and validated, and revelations being digested and debated. Submachine 9 absolutely leave almost no stones unturned, ambitious in its quest to make sure we know exactly or subtly what has happened, what are happening, and what will happens in Submachine 10: the Exit.

The only small criticism that some people may have against the game is that the story told in Submachine 9 has made the Submachine 7’s excitingly active plot rather pointless. Heck, they may feel that the entire series has slammed its brake and did a disservice to its own tale. In my personal opinions, I enjoyed the plot for what it is. While I may lament that the main plot may be neatly wrapped up as it is after experiencing exciting and active entries in Sub_4, 7, and 8, I understood and respect the decisions as what were found in the Temple have huge thematic implications in the entire series for the better.

The method and style of plot and its twists are absolutely fitting given the nature of the Temple location itself. Perhaps what may delighted or angered many of series’ devoted and diehard fans is that the biggest question have still yet to be answered: what Submachine really is? At this point in the entire series given that Mateusz has been very selective with how he choose to share with the players, we may never know the answer.

And yet, we still love the series for its mysteries.

Score: 10/10

—————————

GAMEPLAY

Submachine 9 does not disappoint. It kicks our asses and made sure we loved every agonizing seconds of it. The Temple may well be the hardest in series as it was clearly crafted for the expert PNC players. With very little hints and guiding arrows, we are left to our own devices and instincts as to where to go, what details to explore, and how to solve those puzzles? The series’ hallmark exploration are still here, this time bolstered by sheer immensity of the Temple itself, being the biggest in series. The backtracking were kept from being tedious thanks to strong art direction and smart level design. What elevates the gameplay is how the overarching plot of series works seamlessly within the game, using the items and puzzles themselves to progress the story and answer many of our questions. The puzzles are no slouch either, requiring your very best logic and observation skills to hatch open their solutions.

These requires some finely-tuned attention to details that not many players may have. Some of puzzles are rather difficult (or perhaps TOO difficult), forcing you to potentially hound after a conspicuously hidden item, room after room, before you either figured it out by yourself or resorting to walkthrough. I almost took the easy way out as few of the puzzles were particularly unforgiving given that it is easy to miss some of crucial details that may nudge you toward a solution. Also, secrets hunting is as strong as ever. You may wastes hours trying to find those little golden buggers and hated Mateusz for it. The set this time around are the most cleverly hidden yet.

Make no mistakes, Submachine 9 is a monster as it was meant to be at this point in the series. If you played this game first before any other games in the series, may Shiva has mercy on your poor foolish soul.

Score: 9.5/10

—————————

FINAL THOUGHTS

Submachine 9 has comes and gone, leaving behind trails of destruction that are our lofty expectations. Mateusz Skutnik has once again shattered them and rightly so, leaving the gap wide open for any and all hypes to shatter once more when the conclusive game, Submachine 10: the Exit, emerges from the depth of his mind to pen off one of the most well-realized, expertly-written, and finely-crafted PNC series of all time.

On my more personal notes, this is one of the best in series with Sub_9 ranking alongside Sub_2, 4, 7, and 8. No easy feats given the previous two games have constantly outdoing themselves and Submachine 9 has certainly outdid itself.

With styles.

FINAL SCORE: 9.6/10

Author: -AK-

(This review is also an article, entitled “Submachine 8: Well-Planned,” that I wrote for the next issue of my school’s newspaper. As such, its format is a little different from the standard format of in-depth reviews on this blog. It also has a different, sillier mood.)

Submachine, which has absolutely nothing to do with guns, is quite possibly the most renowned point-and-click series of the twenty-first century. It has been compared to the TV series Lost, with its incredibly complex and slow-progressed plot, its sense of “What is going on here‽”, and its incredible ability to make players—not to mention its unnamed, unseen protagonist—completely, totally, utterly, and redundantly lost.

Submachine is a point-and-click science fiction/puzzle series with elements of the escape genre that is primarily available for free online on the Adobe Flash platform through various Flash gaming websites. Its “basic” premise is that there is a network of places called submachines that was being explored by a team of scientists, most who went missing or died, under the leadership of a mysterious man named Murtaugh, who has the ability to create portals that can be used to travel to different places in the Submachine Network (or Subnet) but damage reality when created; because of this power, Murtaugh’s former colleagues somehow buried him alive in a lighthouse, but he managed to escape and start a team of scientists that would explore the Subnet, but unfortunately for them, Murtaugh went a bit crazy and killed a whole bunch of them and began searching for a way to pursue those who had buried him alive to take his revenge. (*wheeze* *wheeze* *wheeze* Whew! Sorry! I’m okay, now.) Confused yet? Don’t worry. That’s normal, no matter how many times you’ve played through the existing installments in the series. And…even with all of that having been established over the past seven games, it is still unclear what the goal of the protagonist is!

Few questions are answered, and an ungodly number of new ones are opened up, in the latest Submachine game, Submachine 8: The Plan, which was released on the official series website, Submachine World on September 29. The game begins after the protagonist has traveled far outside the Core of the Subnet via one of Murtaugh’s “Karma Portals” at the conclusion of the previous game (aptly subtitled The Core), and now he/she is…well, on a catwalk of some sort…somewhere.

The game ups the ante and brain-pain by introducing the Seven Layers. Apparently, the Subnet has seven layers of reality—seven different “dimensions,” if you will—so that there are seven completely different locations existing in the same place at the same time. These layers are navigated using an also aptly-named device called a Navigator that allows the protagonist to pass between them.

Sector 9 (whatever that means), which is where the protagonist has found him-/herself, is composed of a 9-by-9 grid of, well, game screens, and certain screens (or groups of screens) within a given layer are orphaned from the others. So how can they be accessed? That’s right: by passing to another layer, moving to the equivalent screen on the grid, and then passing back. Unfortunately, each consecutive layer is inaccessible until a device is activated in some way in each preceding layer. It’s not always so clear how to do this, but it doesn’t take too much effort…to figure it out; doing the activation itself is not such a simple matter.

Navigating the game is difficult enough. By the time the protagonist has access to all seven layers, you, as the player, will need to be familiar with the layouts of seven different areas and which layers should be visited to enable access to different screens in other layers. Meanwhile, you are picking up items and other things that will allow you to advance and eventually activate every layer device and then grant the protagonist access to a place in Layer 5 called The Temple, thus completing the game. (I couldn’t possibly explain it any better! Again, it’s like Lost; you have to actually play it to understand it as fully as is humanly possible!)

I fell in love with the Submachine series earlier this year, using walkthroughs to enable myself to actually progress through each frustratingly-puzzling game (in a good way) and see what happened next in the intricate plot. One of my favorite aspects of the series is its dark, foreboding atmosphere that makes you feel very much alone—there are no characters who are actually seen, as the games’ world is seen through the protagonist’s eyes—and therefore want very much to keep moving so you can maybe get closer to civilization of some sort. That atmosphere is as present as ever in The Plan.

This installment is a stand-out among its predecessors with regard to its gameplay; the Seven Layers hook makes for some headache-inducing puzzles and problems that make you work both the logic and memory centers of your brain more than any Submachine has before. As in the rest of the series, you really need to think outside of the box to advance, a staple of Submachine that almost defines it.

While it does little to advance the plot like the past four games have done, Submachine 8 preserves the series’ sense of wonder and awe. Mateusz Skutnik, the mastermind behind everything Submachine, has such a wild and intelligent imagination that I would be lying if I said that he couldn’t possibly be some kind of genius. I would never have the capacity to create such abstract, clever tasks, and while games have used the parallel universes thing almost to the point of cliché, to include an astonishing seven parallel “universes” was a very bold move, and it is done seamlessly.

I can’t write a review about a Submachine game without mentioning the music, called “ambients” by the creator and the game’s fanbase. Once again produced by New York-based group Thumpmonks, The Plan’s music is appropriately haunting and mysterious. Very ambient!

This eighth game marks the first time that a separate “HD” version of the game has been released alongside the usual free browser version. This version of the game can be played offline and in full screen, and it also includes the ability to save one’s progress, which is absent in the browser version. Possibly best of all, the download comes with the official nine-track soundtrack in MP3 format! The HD version costs a measly $2, so if you like the game, purchasing the HD version should have little impact on your wallet, and it helps Mr. Skutnik fund his next game, which will probably be Submachine 9: The Temple, due for release next year! (Then, again, The Plan was originally slated for release in 2011.)

If you like surreal, mind-bending, puzzling games, then I can not recommend the Submachine series to you any more highly, and that, of course, includes The Plan. If you are a sci-fi nerd like myself or a brain-teaser/puzzle enthusiast, even if you are not much of a gamer, you will also most likely appreciate the masterpiece that is Submachine 8. The game continues the mystery and subtle suspense that the first seven games and four spinoffs so perfectly established. The Seven Layers mechanic is executed fantastically. And the atmosphere is beautifully haunting. So what are you waiting for? Go play Submachine 8: The Plan right now! Actually, wait, no. Like with Lost, you should probably start at the beginning! Submachine 1: The Basement is available on the series website, along with the rest of the games. Check them out at Submachine World!

Gameplay: 10/10
Design: 10/10
Graphics: 10/10
Replay Value: 9/10
Soundtrack: 9.5/10

Overall Grade: 9.7/10 (A+)

Author: Ezlo