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Asemblance is the latest game to rely on the community to find solutions to its secrets. A first-person mystery set inside a Holodeck-like memory lab, you must enter a number of ‘memory events’ in order to piece together what is going on. Why are you there? What are the memories trying to tell you?
The game starts with a voice (presumably an AI of some sort, but it’s not clear) asking you a question, one that you don’t really feel equipped to answer. You’re then told you should press X at a terminal in order to activate a memory. The first, taking place on a rocky area of natural beauty, is rather lovely to look at but there’s not much there – or at least there doesn’t appear to be much. You are prompted to hold R2 to zoom in on things, which in turn triggers events if you’re targeting an area of importance. Hit Triangle and the memory is closed down and you’re returned to the lab.
I’ve played through each memory numerous times now, with triggered events causing changes in how the memories are displayed. I’ve managed to find a handful of ‘endings’, although none have been particularly satisfying. On seeing an ending you’re asked if you want to continue or start again. Obviously I’ve continued each time (is that a mistake? I don’t know), but I’m now at the point where I’m completely stuck. I think there’s one more ending to find.
What else there is to discover and how this will change my opinion on the game (although it’s more an interactive experience than a traditional adventure) remains to be seen, but I’m pretty sure I, and many other players, won’t be doing this alone. Like P.T. (and to a lesser extent, Resident Evil 7), Nilo Studios, headed by Creative Director Niles Sankey (who spent 10 years at Bungie working on Halo and Destiny) is hoping players come together to find all the secrets.
There is a lot to decipher, from work documents scattered about an office to almost random pieces of dialogue from a person found in your memories. At the moment I’m intrigued. The experimental lab, complete with massive memory chamber, is like something from an episode of The Outer Limits, and the endings I’ve currently experienced are bizarre.
At the moment Asemblance is an interesting diversion, but it promises to be much more. Whether it fulfils that promise will depend on what mysteries can be solved (which might well involve looking outside of the game). And I’m torn on the merits of a game seemingly designed so a single player (at least one with my intelligence) can’t find the ultimate conclusion. It worked well for P.T., a demo available to everyone for free, but Asemblance is a game you have to hand over money for.
How Asemblance, which is being touted as “the first episode of an expansive franchise inspired by The Twilight Zone, The X-Files and the Black Mirror television series,” sets up later episodes will be interesting. For now this stands alone as something a bit different from the norm. It’s brief but discovering everything will take considerable time and effort.
Version Tested: PS4
