90%PC

Subsurface Circular is an atmospheric text based detective game that tells its story in a single location: a car of the titular Subsurface Circular, a metro for robots. The story unfolds in real time without time skips which makes it incredibly immersive.

The actual dialog system and investigating is rather simple, but the characters and writing are super interesting and the overarching plot is quite strong. I highly recommend checking this out, it was clearly made by a passionate team with a clear vision.

50%Nintendo Switch

After playing the great Thomas Was Alone a few month ago, I was really eager to understand why its author, Thomas Bithell, didn't become an indie figure as famous and respected (if not revered) as other indie stars from the past 10-15 years. The answer couldn't just be that he had chosen a bad PR. So I bought several of his other games, genuinely curious to see how his vision of game design had evolved, whether he had built on the foundations of Thomas Was Alone or opted for a different direction. Well... based on the sole Subsurface Circular, the answer seems to be... bit of both, and absolutely not.

Subsurface Circular is an interesting story about synth-life and what does humanity mean, which makes it a direct heir to TWA, but as a game, it's nothing near the cute narrative puzzle-platformer. In fact, it's barely a game, and I don't mean this as insult : it is pure fact. Not only it's a very old-school textual adventure, but interactivity is limited to the bare minimum (reading dialogues + choosing questions and answers, quickly understanding that this choice will have no further impact). The puzzles are extremely simple (just talk to everyone in the right order, which is not difficult to guess), and as if that wasn't linear enough, the game even displays 'quest' objectives, just to make sure that you don't get tired exploring the mechanics and that you focus on the story. Actually, I guess the main 'originality' of the game is that the avatar is immobile (since the Subsurface Circular is a subway in which we sit from start to finish).

Nothing dramatic in itself, just a game of a genre that doesn't interest me and that I would never have played in another context, but what particularly pained me here is how much it denies the legacy of Thomas Was Alone - not as a pseudo-philosophical work, but as a video game. Thomas was a masterclass in telling a story and sending messages through the gameplay ; Subsurface is basically a sci-fi short story in 3D, and not even a great one.

70%Nintendo Switch

A fun concept, short-and-sweet. Would love to see this idea & world fleshed-out and expanded upon in one way or another in the future.

95%PC

Amazing story and very very fun to play, love the ending!

60%Nintendo Switch

It is a good game. Just not my genre as there is very little gameplay

80%PC

[URL=https://abbysblog.net/blog/subsurface-circular]https://abbysblog.net/blog/subsurface-circular[/URL]

65%Nintendo Switch

Damn that was disappointing.
The two choices at the end felt extremely flawed. There was so much interesting potential and literally none of it was delivered upon

75%Nintendo Switch

One and done
Date is accurate

60%PC

A visual novel with choices that hardly matter, and often lead to dialog lines that are obviously written with multiple previous choices in mind. While I get that making proper branching paths is almost impossible, the dialog in this is a bit wooden and stilted because of it.

It's not a bad experience, but I doubt it'll stick with me in the long run.

70%Nintendo Switch

+ Solid presentation;
+ Well-written story and dialogues;
+ Clever use of dialogue as puzzles.

- The game could've done with other gameplay mechanics to break the repetitiveness of the core gameplay;
- Short and lacks replayability.

7.5 - Worth buying at 1.49€ during sales for fans of narrative games with heavy focus on puzzle solving.

80%PC

How do I enjoy this mans games so much

8.0

80%Nintendo Switch

Okayish visual novel with rather boring riddles

30%PC

Meaningless story and screen transitions were painfully slow. Interesting concept though.

100%PC

I thought this game was fantastic, especially since I just finished reading "I, Robot" shortly before playing it. It was such a breath of fresh air to have a game where I could experience a full story with interesting dialogue and characters in a single sitting - almost like watching a movie. I loved the art style, the music, the writing - all of it. I highly recommend Subsurface Circular and am very much looking forward to trying out Quarantine Circular!

80%PC

81

80%Nintendo Switch

Incredibly compelling for what is a conversation simulation at its core. Setting and premise are very nicely developed in a short time and the interesting moral dilemma thrown at you unexpectedly secures a link between the player and the characters very nicely. An epilogue or outro would have really finished the story nicely, but I appreciated the vagueness allowing you to mull over your decision

90%PC

bithell <3

70%PC

Short but good story

70%PC

A refreshing, innovative hybrid of visual novel and Telltale-style adventure game. That everything is driven purely by dialogue means communication itself is the puzzle, which would be one thing if the characters were human, but since they are robots new thematic avenues open up. Trite, tropey "man vs machine" conflict is given the backseat to genuine topics of identity and understanding. I do wish there was more to do to break up the monotony of constant, silent conversation, but the characters are well written enough to be interesting and engaging for the 2 hour running time.

80%PC

this is a nice game!

80%PC

Simple, thoroughly enjoyable narrative game. You sit on a train and talk to other robots to unravel a mystery of disappearing robots. The setting, presentation, and UI are all quite clever.

80%PC

Something unique with interesting story

90%PC

Really good and interesting narrative. Kept me on my toes and surprised all the way through. Would recommend if you like conversation based games.

80%PC

Not a game so much as it is a visual novel, but it tells a great story and doesn't ask for much of your time. Making the player care about very basic non-emotive characters seems to be Bithell's strength, but I'd sure love to see that paired with more interactive game mechanics again like Thomas Was Alone.

50%PC

Neat idea for a minimalist experience. Extremely short - main game probably clocked in just north of two hours doing everything, plus an extra half hour messing around to get the last couple achievements.

This is one of those "borderline games" - really more of a choose your own adventure story, given that the "gameplay" consists entirely of picking out dialogue options. It's decent for what it is, but at the same time, while the rest of the game felt like it had nuance, the end felt like it was lacking in it.

80%PC

Interesting little game that takes place entirely in conversations between bots.

You play as a detective bot talking with other bots on the underground subway known as the "Subsurface Circular" trying to solve a mystery. Your bot never leaves its seat and other bots come and go at the various stops progressing the story and investigation. You are basically choosing what questions to ask and how your bot responds to questions in return, etc.

The environment is well rendered and looks great, but it winds up being just the background for the conversation text.

The game is brief, but I enjoyed it and it felt about right length-wise. It took me 2.8 hours to complete.

I really like the environment and setting, but I wished the robot voice announcing the various stops didn't mispronounce so many of them. It's minor, but since there's so little spoken dialog in the game, it stands out when what little there is is mis-pronounced.

Overall: A well done game, just go in knowing it's basically a text-based game requiring a lot of reading of dialog to know what's going on. 8 out of 10.

60%PC

Cool story, but will never play again.

40%PC

Well, that was short and unenlightening.

80%Nintendo Switch

A fun and short narrative experience. An observation of a society run by robots that closely mirrors our own.

50%PC

-Great look
-Great sound design
-No real game play other than text based choices (but I knew this going in)
-An ultimately very simplistic story, told in an overly wordy, not very interesting way
-Could have made its point with more game play and far less verbosely