Playing Every Game in the Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality
PEGBRJE: ‘The Big Wave’ and ‘That Which Binds Us’
Well then.
The Big Wave is a narrative puzzle and detective game created by ArgZero Technologies, a software firm focused on designing tools and solutions for games and software. In this foray of theirs to create an entire game, the player listens to different radio frequencies in order to stop a terrorist plot against… moustaches?
The goal is to listen to the radio frequencies in sections, attempting to piece together certain aspects of the plot to destroy a Moustache Museum before updating the report to the police. Each section involves the player flipping through the radio channels listed above, or typing in new ones that are uncovered during the game that may help. If any information sounds important, there’s a notepad on the bottom right that players can use to type in. This is a crucial step as players can and will get lost in the information sea as they listen to different sports to piece together current events, commercials to hear about what is being advertised on certain channels and even some self-help meditation to calm the nerves.
At the end of each section, players will be sent to an automated police caller, and will be asked a very specific question about the plot that was revealed in secret by the radio messages. Clicking on the correct numbered prompt will allow for players to move to the next day and hear new messages to try to figure out what the next clue that the police might need. Selecting incorrectly, however, will reveal a newspaper that the terrorists were able to follow through with their plot and blow up moustache history.
The key is not just in the detective work. Argzero also attempted to make the game accessible for those with colourblindness and audio-sensory issues. All of the interactable items use shades to interact intractability so that it is easier to differentiate between the two functions. As this is a radio game, subtitles are available at all times to help those with hearing impairments so that they can still attempt to solve the puzzles. They are small inclusions, but accessibility goes a long way to ensure that everyone can play.
While you might not solve the case on the first go, The Big Wave is a game that wants you to keep trying — each success can be used in future playthroughs to help keep things rolling, and eventually you’ll be able to save us all from those that enjoy clean shaves. It’s a short game, but one worth checking out if you like pen and paper detectives.
Note that upon failing a second time, the continue button fails to work — even if you fail in two different days. You will need to restart the game to try again.
That Which Binds Us is a visual novel and dating simulator created by Crystal Game Works, an indie studio specializing in visual novels in the USA. Players follow Evalise, a young woman just trying to live her best life while dealing with an unscrupulous partner. However, an opportunity presents itself to her, and suddenly she finds herself pondering what bonds truly mean to people, and what it means to remember and forget.
In this initially linear story, Evalise works for a retail store and is just trying to get by in life — from dealing with terrible customers and nosy coworkers, she at least has a job that pays well. Unfortunately her money keeps disappearing due to her current boyfriend Stephan thanks to his constant need for posting bail. This time, however, Evalise decides to go get a bail bond from a strange location at a coworker’s request, only to find herself roped up with the curious Idris. While offering her a bond, he also offers an alternative that sounds completely insane; the ability to sever the bond to her boyfriend with his magical knife. Tentative to accept until a bit more evidence convinces her, Evalise now struggles with her newfound freedom as well as her connection to Idris.
The story has many twists and turns, but ultimately the title reveals the focus: how do our bonds change us? Idris has many stories of different clients wanting to sever different people out of their lives, but at times reveals that it can be less of a gift and more of a monkey’s paw. After all, those that forget rarely can remember why they wanted to forget in the first place.
This focus on memories and bonds helps to keep things exciting as both Evalise and Idris delve more in to their relatively shady pasts, from Evalise’s accident that caused memory loss to Idris’ dealings with some very unsavory customers. They both come off as somewhat awkward and ‘sassy’ in their small talk, but are also extremely relatable in how their lives have turned out. Evalise has never been able to achieve any of her dreams due to the accident and a certain boyfriend, but she begins to question if those are the only things that were limiting her. Now in her mid 20s, she starts to question just how much control she may have over her life. Idris is in a similar scenario, only he talks less about how he has gotten here and more about how his job is not that exciting. Once the thread unravels, however, that quirky facade cannot save him.
I said it was relatively linear, but that is not technically true. In a bit of a twist of style, That Which Binds Us does not have ‘routes’ in the traditional sense — players will follow Evalise on her journey and reach a conclusion that follows the plot. Where we deviate completely from the norm is in the NewGame+, where we completely swap out our protagonist. We’ll instead follow someone else from the story, and here is where players can get a completely different perspective on the plot — after all, we can now find out things that Evalise always wanted to know but never could. It is here that decisions made are much more impactful as there are now multiple endings to give variance to this alternate route. Will the story end up the same, only with a different narrator? Perhaps, but that is now a possibility for change.
Players not only get a novel, but a secondary novel running parallel to it with That Which Binds Us, and this is by far its most interesting aspect. I’m not saying this to detract from the plot, as I quite enjoyed the flavour of two adults trying to connect that come from such different walks of life. Dating sims usually are within the high school-college range of ages, but you only get to be those ages once. We don’t stay that age forever. Nevertheless, it is also fun to see them both look at how our memories and bonds alter our perception of ourselves, and explore that with some supernatural twists.
If you like dating sims with a simple yet effective premise that spice things up after a single completion, then this might be a good game to try out.
