Text-based adventure games are one of the earliest forms of game I can ever remember playing. Mind you, back then having any kind of animated graphics was nigh-on impossible, and even large pixellated images took up way too much of the tape space. Yes, that’s right tape. M3G1DD0 have released their own text-based horror adventure game called American Angst. We took a look. Just how far down memory lane does American Angst take me.
Storyline
Right, this is the big one. A text-based adventure game has to have a good story to keep you going. After all there aren’t gorgeous graphics to bewitch you.
The story starts off with you, the protagonist waking up in a completely dark room. Unable to see anything, for the first few screens you have to feel your way around. Fortunately, you soon find a torch. Unfortunately, this torch shows that you’re in the room with a corpse who’s met with a rather unfortunate ‘accident’. This was strange enough, but when a man in the same uniform as the dead man enters your cell, and without talking and even less provocation starts attacking you, you start to suspect that something just may be a bit off.
Once you leave your cell, the strange goings on just keep coming, as the inhabitants of the strange facility keep trying to kill you. Can you keep your panic attacks under control long enough to survive and find out just what happened?
The story is kind of fun. though not overly long. I got through the game in around 30 minutes. Don’t expect a semi-autobiographical epic set against the backdrop of a Napoleonic war, or anything. The story is short, fun with elements of horror and strange liberally sprinkled within.
Gameplay
The bulk of the game is heavily based on a text adventurer game. You read the paragraphs and based on the decision you’d like to undertake, click on the required option. Unlike the traditional text-based games you don’t have to worry about typing the right commands. This obviously saves the endless and rather tiring complication of working out the right commands. On earlier text-based adventure game you could waste hours just endlessly typing different ways of saying the same thing until you found the right one. On the flip side, it does make the game a little simple in that there are only a few possible options per screen.
Like most text-based adventure games there is a combat element. When combat is initiated you see the health and energy of your opponent, as well as your own health and energy. Simply choose the attack you want to try. Different attacks cost different amounts of energy and have different success rates and different strengths. For example a kick takes a little more energy, hits harder but has a greater chance of missing giving your enemy more chance to kill you before you kill them. So, each turn an invisible dice is rolled and depending on the verdict, you take or give damage. Whoever takes their opponent to zero health is the winner.
M3G1DD0 have also added a fear element within American Angst. Your level of fear is taken into account throughout the game. Scary events increase your fear level, while taking deep breaths and generally chilling out, calm you down. Let your fear raise too high, and you can have a panic attack, which generally isn’t good. It’s a nice touch, something else to think about but generally as long as you take deep breaths when you can it’s not a problem.
American Angst doesn’t have the most in-depth and complex gameplay, but for such a short storied game it gets the job done.
Graphics & Sound
Right, I’m not going to lie to you. It’s mostly text you read off a screen, with a few sound effects here and there. You wouldn’t buy this game if graphics are your only reason for gaming. Oh, there were a few typo’s on the text. Not many I grant you, but they did stick out.
Difficulty
American Angst is not a difficult game. I got through the game in a little under half an hour, and I died twice. Generally, this was due to some bad dice rolls in combat. If you do die, you go back to the last auto-save point and can try again. Is difficulty a factor here? I’m generally not sure. The general ethos of this game seems to be that of a quick, bright and breezy text adventure game. The storyline doesn’t call for a high difficulty level
Replayability
There are a few different endings, for you to get so there are a few reasons to go back to this game, plus you know you can probably see them all in the best part of an afternoon. Would you go back to the game, once you’ve seen all the different endings. probably not. Though the game is just over £2, so what do you want for that amount of money.
Share this article:
Jim Franklin
Jim Franklin is a freelance writer, living in Derby UK with his wife and his player 3. When time allows he likes nothing more than losing himself in a multi-hour gaming session. He likes most games and will play anything but prefers MMO's, and sandbox RPG's.
