Despite the
game's age, I will try to explain it using as few spoilers as
possible. Any specific examples I use will come from the first half
of the game, and any excess information I include will be the sort of
thing I would personally like to know before playing.
A Description of 999
999 is, in
essence, a combination of two genres: Escape-The-Room game and Visual
Novel. The premise is that nine people were kidnapped, drugged, and
locked in a ship. The ship will sink in 9 hours. Each person has a
numbered bracelet welded on their left wrist. In order to escape,
they have to go into numbered doors and find things that will be
useful to exploring more of the ship. They will escape if they can
find, and go through, door 9.
This game relies
heavily on math; not hard math, but addition and memory. A main
example is how you open the doors. Every character has a bracelet
with a number from 1-9 on it, and the doors are numbered 1-9. Doors
can be unlocked using 3-5 bracelets... if the digital root matches
the number on the door. Example: 3 + 5 + 6 + 8 = 22. 2+2 = 4 That
combination of people can go through door 4. To prevent cheating,
each bracelet is a detonator for a bomb. If the people who enter a
door don't verify their numbers fast enough, they explode.
999
is rated 'M' for 'Mature'. There is swearing, but not excessive
amounts; however, there is blood, violence, and I skipped quite a bit
of the text because it made me feel queasy. M games are, by
definition, not for children.
Now
that that's
over
with...
What's an Escape-The-Room game?
Escape-The-Room games are simple, in concept, but
usually require a lot of thought and effort to complete. While the
9-hour timer isn't enforced on the gamer, the characters are
constantly mentioning how time is running out. This made me, the
player, anxious about the amount of time everything took: when I
struggled with a puzzle, I felt as though they were judging me, and
often screamed at them to try it if they thought they could do
better. I also demanded to know why they were standing around talking
while time was ticking away.
Escape games require players to look at limited
resources and normal objects and figure out what their specific
purpose is. The very first puzzle of the game involves the player,
trapped in a single room, to find specific objects. There are two
slips of paper, with colored shapes (outlines and filled in) and
arrows beneath them going from right to left. There's also a picture,
screwed into its frame, and a screwdriver. If you use the screwdriver
to take the back off a frame, you find a list of things such as
'triangle outline = 1' on it.... and the room happens to feature two
combination locks.
This
game has great replay value because of the different rooms you can go
through. Every time, your character can only go through one of two or
three different doors. Each door has its own puzzle. Player
Note: Choosing Door 3 will force you to go through Door 2 next, no
choice involved.
Sadly,
the puzzles are identical each time, down to the specific numbers
needed to open locks, which means that doing certain puzzles-- such
as the very first one-- can eventually prove rote. My first time
through the game, puzzle 1 took 30 minutes. My last time, I doubt it
took 5.
What's a Visual Novel?
A visual novel is, essentially, a game where the player
makes choices for a character. Depending on what the player chooses,
subsequent sections, and even the ending, may change. The results can
alter the information a player receives, the choices available to
them in the future, and so forth.
A basic example, though not one featured in the game: in
a game about being stranded on a desert island with four people, two
of them, Max and Lucy, are fighting. You are asked to take sides.
Your options are to sit it out, take Max's side, or take Lucy's side.
If you take Max's side, then about three weeks later,
in-game time, Lucy will find a new, reliable food source. She won't
share it with anyone. If you took Lucy's side, she'll share it with
you, and only you... leading to more decisions. If you didn't take a
side, the game will have the last character find the food source, and
no decision will be involved at all.
Why does 999 work as a game?
That's
actually a very simple answer: every section of the game involves the
person playing it to put conscious
thought into
what's going on.
Over the course of the game, choices arise with alarming
frequency. There's the obvious, in terms of which door you enter and
why... but there are smaller choices, and each of them can also
change the ending you get. Smaller choices are things like which of
two, or three, questions you ask another character; whether you
encourage a character to talk about their past, or tell them to stuff
it because of the time limit; even if you decide to humor another
character's fears or laugh at them. Because these things change how
the other characters react to you, and what information they're
willing to give you in the future, you weigh these choices carefully.
Also of note: door 9 has to be opened by 3-5 people with
a digital root of 9. What happens if seven people reach it? What
happens if the only people left alive can't make 9?
Why would 999 fail as a book or movie?
That's
simple: The
element of choice, and the multiple endings, are vital in
understanding what's going on.
Over the course of the game, there will
be regular choices between which doors you go through. Each door will
reveal something different about the plot.
First Choice: Door 4 or 5
Second Choice: Door 3, 7, or 8.
Third Choice: Door 1, 2, or 6.
Every choice will lead to your
character getting different information and different character
interactions, and all are essential to understanding the plot as a
whole.
If you go through door 4, you'll learn
about old scientific experiments and about psychic communications.
Door 5, you'll learn about some mysterious circumstances and another
character's approach to life. These things will affect what ending
you get, and what information you can use later on.
If you go through door 3, for various
plot-related reasons, you will only be allowed to go through door 2
after. This makes perfect sense in context-- if you need something
specific to advance, why keep searching after you find it?-- but
prevents other choices later, and gives you the very least amount of
information.
IF your final choice is Door 2, you
will always get ending F.
IF your final choice is Door 6, you
could get ending B or E, depending on what other choices you made.
IF your final choice is Door 1, you
could get ending A, C, or D, depending on what other choices you made
AND WHETHER OR NOT YOU'VE GOTTEN A SPECIFIC OTHER ENDING AT LEAST
ONCE BEFORE.
You see, ending A-- the game's 'real'
ending, canonical, and the one that ends with the most people alive--
requires you to have information from Door 4 and Door 5 to make sense
of it. It requires you to use information you only got in one of the
other endings. And the explanation for how you, as the character, are
capable of knowing this-- despite having never gained this
information through this playthrough-- is explained in the in-game
text, the conversations you had with other characters, in other
playthroughs.
In
a movie, in a book, that would be impossible. It requires the same
person to make two opposite sets of choices, and gather information
that's impossible to have, in order to proceed; movies and books, at
present, have no way to 'lock' a person out of an ending, and people
would feel cheated if it was attempted. In the context of a game,
where starting over is seen as commonplace and being able to play a
game again for a different experience is considered a way to raise
its value, this is vital and valuable. In a movie or book, it would
require either alternate realities-- which would strain reasoning and
not make sense, given the final conclusion to the plot-- or to force
the reader/viewer to re-watch or re-read the first quarter of the
book/film each time.
If requested, I'll go into further detail about the plot
of the game 999 in a future post, but that should give you a decent
idea of why the very ability to choose, and alter, the plot of a
story can be instrumental in gaming plots. Forcing a person to do the
wrong things, and make the wrong choices, is a story device that
can't be offered in books or movies as-yet.
Any questions? Opinions? Thoughts?
Next week, I'll focus on writing-- specifically, publication.
Happy Writing,
-Alaina
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