I had the opportunity to play “Facade” today. While I do like the idea of having text-based interactions with a video game, the technology is not yet at a place where it was even a remotely satisfying experience. As “deep” as the game may have been with its not-so-hidden layers of human interaction and the complexity of situations, the lack of full control diminished the game-play and took away from the intent (whatever they ‘intent’ may have been–another problem* of the game).

As I stated in class, conceptually it’s an interesting idea, but in practice (especially in “Facade”) text-based action falls flat. Facade’s two-dimensional characters (in personality, not appearance), unappealing atmosphere, and repetitive scenario make it about as riveting as [insert something excruciating boring here]. I could see text-based action being really cool if you were playing some sort of FBI where you got to interview a suspect and get clues from them by asking the right thing or something (just an idea). For some reason, Men In Black keeps coming to mind.

Anyways, the creators of “Facade” definitely have something. What that ‘something’ is, I think they’ve yet to define (which translates in the game). However, I won’t discount that this definitely has potential.

*Wouldn’t necessarily be a problem if the game was more exciting.