Indie Game Review: 1213

One of Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw's attempts to work in genres that are not immediately supported by Adventure Game Studio, 1213 is a psychological action/adventure game. Over the course of three short "episodes", it tells the story of the titular character, a man kept in a cell for reasons unknown to him due to his lack of long-term memory, as he searches for both answers to his own existence and a way out of his prison.

That the game itself is an experiment is all too clear. While Yahtzee is to be commended for using AGS in creative ways, the fact that he used a program intended for making point-and-click adventures poses certain issues. Namely, that the collision detection is absolute crap. There's no skill involved in shooting enemies, as it seems as though hitting them is a matter of chance. Sometimes you can kill them in one shot, sometime it takes three. This wouldn't be so irksome if the enemies dodged shots or did anything to excuse not registering that they've been hit. Moving enemies also have the advantage as apparently they don't even need to actually touch you to inflict damage. Just being within the aura of one is enough to hurt you. The boss battles are particularly challenging because of the hit detection issues. All three involve alternating between dodging and shooting. However, the game is still impressive given both what it was made with and that it's offered for free. A good story goes a long way with me, as well, so I'm inclined to forgive the gameplay. Despite being a platformer, the majority of the gameplay is still very point-and-click in nature, so the shooting and dodging isn't too much to bear.

1213 is atmospheric in a way similar to Manhunt, in that the music cues and sudden surprises are the driving force behind the feel of the game. Other game developers might recognize the music as that of RPG Maker 2003's resource pack, which I feel says something for its use, seeing as whole scenes are built around music that was intended to be used as background filler in amateur RPG dungeons. Similarly, the graphics are nothing to write home about on their own, but are used to great effect. While they're not detailed themselves, there's lots of little details that might've gone either unnoticed among more refined graphics or not thought of at all if more time had been spent pixeling everything to perfection.

At the end of each episode you're given your stats, which will list how many shots you fired, how many guards/zombies you killed, and how long it took you to complete the level. The high score fiends among us will want to replay it for the sake of doing it faster than the last time with fewer shots and fewer kills, but for the rest of us, "Episode 3" features an alternate ending that can only be accessed by beating the game the normal way the first time. I'm not a big fan of this game's cut scene art, but the alternate cutscene at the end is worth beating the last boss again.

Overall, I think this game is an example of the whole not being the sum of its parts. While it is definitely lacking in some areas, 1213 totally makes up for it with its suspenseful, chilling, and even sad story.