Hayden, the friend of a struggling journalist has gone missing. His sentient robot, Turing, thinks it has something to do with his latest creation and believes the journalist has the skills best suited to investigating the case without getting law enforcement involved.
ROM is a Point-and-Click with a focus on the narrative and characters, over combat, checklists, or stat upgrades. There are some light puzzle elements sprinkled in, but the bulk of the gameplay will be straight storytelling. I genuinely enjoyed the narrative and thought Turing was a delight to be around, but it had some pacing problems. Chapters 1 and 2 start off strong with an intriguing mystery centered around the top-secret project Hayden was working on and how it relates to his disappearance. The problems start after the revelation of Hayden's death, when the plot sends the player off on two completely unrelated story threads, which are acknowledged as non-sequiturs. Chapters 3 and 4 slip into a bit of a lull as a result. Things pick up again in Chapters 5 and 6, ending on a high note. The whole story more or less unfolds the same, with only the ending being majorly impacted by player choices. There are six possible conclusions:
• Whether you failed a certain mini-game or not will determine if you'll see one of two "positive" endings (All Good Things/The Sacrifice) or one of two "negative" endings (A New Blue/Complicity).
• How you treat Turing, your sentient AI partner, will determine which of the two branches in the positive and negative endings you'll get to see.
• An additional two endings (Flatline/Secret) can occur based on your decisions at the very end of the game. Your attitude towards other characters will also effect who helps you.
There is more than one use for this very special item.
The futuristic world of 2064 Neo-San Francisco has a believably progressive attitude and features a diverse group of people, including LGBT characters and human hybrids - people who have undergone treatments that give them animal or robotic features. The player can even input their own pronouns. I wasn't to keen on how extensively cybernetic augments in humans (cyborgs) and genetically augmented humans (hybrids) were used in the story, given how little was actually done with it. The possible negative effects of gene splicing, cybernetic enhancements, or ROMs in general aren't even brought up much. At most they get a quick mention, like how androids have wrecked North Korea, VR entertainment having addictive side effects, or Lexie hunting down an enhanced criminal. The questions they raise about the self and what it means to be human are very relevant to Turing and his existence but these themes are only vaguely touched upon.
Nit-picking thoughts on the "furries" (highlight to read):
Hybrids are sterilized before treatment to ensure they do not reproduce after the procedure, but would a genetically altered human/animal "hybrid" even be capable of reproducing with a human or another hybrid? I would think sterilization would be unnecessary after such extensive genetic alterations. Perhaps the required sterilization is just their way of erring on the side of caution?
Hybridization is also made out to be something terrible, the sort of thing you would want to avoid unless required for medical reason because of the sterilization and pain of the procedure itself. The
potentially horrific physical changes, depending on the animal genes
used, are mentioned as another reason to avoid the procedure. However, the cosmetic changes from hybridization as they are shown in-game felt too fan-servicey - mostly humans with cat ears - the sort of thing certain people would find highly attractive rather than repulsive. They aren't the worst you could imagine happening to you after undergoing such a treatment, and would cat/rabbit ears or horns really be the only cosmetic changes from such a procedure? We're told there is the possibility for scary bug-type hybrids but we never get to see anything in-game that comes anywhere close to this
I also find it hard to believe that this would be the future's way of fighting cancer; although I am aware that some animals like naked mole-rats are cancer resistant in real-life. And I know I'm being logical and overthinking something meant to be primarily allegorical, but that is just how my mind works.
The game is a straightforward read without any branching pathways. Although, some story segments can be approached in a multitude of ways. During one investigation I had to get past a news manager in order to speak to the host. I could accomplish the task by (highlight to read):
1. Talking my way through.
2. Adding spoiled milk to the manager's coffee.
3. Fabricating dirt on the host and threatening to go public.
There are no dead ends or game overs, and of the three mini-games present in ROM, only one was under time pressure.
The player will often be presented with a set of options for interacting with objects or people in the environment: look at, touch/pick up, talk to/eat, or use an inventory item on. These interactions are rarely useful, aside from gleaning an extra bit of info (like using an ID card on Melody's robot) or bonding with Turing.
ROM is an entertaining, story driven Point-and-Click that envisions a more colorful image of the future, one that helps it to stand apart from some of the more grim titles in the genre. It is light on the gameplay side. The path to next objective is always clear and there was never a lot of arbitrarily actions required to advance to the next scene, allowing the player to choose how much or how little they want to engage with the non-essential actions and flavor text. Whether or not that's a bad thing will depend on your tastes.
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