"SIMULACRA 2" is a real-life fear plot puzzle and mystery game. Its predecessor "SIMULACRA" was well received, but the flaws in the Chinese version made most domestic players discourage it. This new work not only comes with well-translated official Chinese, but also participates in new gameplay elements. The plot is more roundabout and confusing, and the cast is stronger. It is a masterpiece that cannot be missed for players in plot mystery games.
Layered cocoons in the mobile interface
As early as 2016, there was a puzzle game called "Replica" that made people shine - during the game, players had to operate a mobile phone to find the information left by the former owner, so as to escape. All the players' operations in "SIMULACRA 2" are also aborted in the interface of a mobile phone. However, regarding the small size and simple puzzle gameplay of "Replica", the content elements of this game are extremely rich, the gameplay is more diverse, and the performance effects are very different, so it is still enough to bring players a sense of novelty.
To put it in detail, the game unfolds a relatively novel but hastily closed mysterious case. Players obtained the victim's mobile phone as a rookie agent or indifferent reporter, and thus launched an investigation. The gameplay is like using a real mobile phone. You can answer calls, send messages alone or pull a group chat, listen to voice messages, view photos and videos on your phone, log in to social media to view the dynamics of key people, and download APPs and data. The music on your mobile phone can also be played as a BGM. I have to say that the music inside is still very exciting.
You can also download the software
Don’t forget to detect the case! The key information about this case is undoubtedly in this mobile phone, but it is not that easy to find. First of all, the quality of this phone itself is worrying, and the data has been deleted, so many of the data are in a damaged state and can only be viewed if it needs to be repaired. Secondly, relying on the information in your mobile phone to solve the case is far from enough. Players also need to read the social media updates of victims and related characters, as well as communicate and chat with some key characters to obtain more case information.
Fortunately, in the game, the police detective installed a high-tech APP on our mobile phone - Warden. Through this APP, we were able to extract some key information we found as clues and evidence. In addition, the mobile phone is also authorized to be connected to the police station’s archive library. After entering the correct information, you can obtain relevant archive information as clues. These clues can be used mainly to repair damaged documents, and also play a great role in communication and interrogation with suspects.
Repair file through this artifact is the key to solving puzzles
The communication with several key characters is not as straightforward as formal interrogation, but is somewhat similar to home-based methods, coiling around various meticulous things to stop chatting, and choosing the words you like among several options to abort reply. Since there are a lot of chat and communication in the game, some replies have little impact on the resolution of the case, but many of them are very important. Players need to carefully check the content of the chat and make careful choices based on everyone's personality and the progress of the matter. Sometimes, a limited-time reply option may be presented at any time to allow players to make quick decisions and have a key impact on subsequent communication and reasoning.
Some replies cannot be used if they have not collected enough information. Of course, just chatting and clichés cannot hold back some people's confusion. At this time, they need to take out the clues and evidence they found to smash them in the face, forcing them to tell the truth, so as to obtain new key information to repair new clues and evidence.
Generally speaking, the game closely connects four major parts: existing information collection, chat and communication clichés, clue and evidence repair, and archive information inquiry, which influences each other and is confusing.Players must obtain information in a cycle like peeling off the cocoons and recurring the truth of the case, and seeking four solutions. Assuming that it is really hard to be at a loss, the game also has a prompt section for players to refer to to avoid levels.
Really don’t know what to do, please check the prompts
The real atmosphere created by the outstanding performance
This game participates in a large number of high-definition videos and pictures to improve the performance effect. Thanks to the excellent acting skills of several actors and the special disposal of certain video pictures, it brings players a cool and arrogant audio-visual experience. But to be honest, the thriller level of the game is within a moderate range, mainly concentrated in some video clips and pages that make selections on the website. The frequency of presentation is not much, and sometimes there is no sudden call to scare people. It's really thrilling enough when the game is approaching its prologue, but I believe that after a long period of baptism, players can adapt easily.
photos become scary after being disposed of
It may be because of the lack of fear effect. The game has participated in some "jump scar"-style fear scenes. Although the number is not large, it is indeed unexpected. However, these fear plots are actually very closely related to the main plot of the game, just like some low-level fear films, using a method that is not related to promoting the plot to improve the fear effect. In my opinion, this method of "fearing for fear" is not necessary. Assuming the use of fear expression techniques that are closer to the main line, it should be more convincing.
Viewing the report may suddenly come with a high-energy
Of course, the most impressive thing about the game is not these thrilling parts, but the real atmosphere it creates that seems to be an ordinary ideal life. Perhaps the end of the game will make people feel a little magical, but as the game process deepens, players will be quickly pulled back to their ideals. Each character has a very distinct personality, a decent face but often brings cold and humorous detective, a businessman who looks rich and confident, a musician with fragile and sensitive heart, and a beauty blogger who loves to express himself. Their communication and chat with players are in line with their own personalities and are very lifelike and down-to-earth, without any sense of memorizing lines, and will give different responses based on the player's replies, just like living characters. The same is true for other characters who don’t appear many times but communicate. Although they don’t write much, they are impressive.
These four main characters have distinct personalities and each has secrets
In addition, during the process of operating the mobile phone to detect cases, you can feel various changes from the outside world. For example, when chatting with others, you may call at any time. When you are busy with other things, you will receive some social media updates and push. When you have problems with your phone during communication, the other party will interrogate what happened after restarting. In the police system, you will see the broadcast of other cases that are not related to this case. After advancing some things, the relevant characters will post some updates, and some may have nothing to do with the case, but when you browse these updates, you will feel that it is intact and reasonable for them to post the updates, and it is something that the real characters will do. At the same time, the details of the game are also very good, such as the battery of the phone will be reduced as the player operates the phone, etc. (The battery of the phone is also really durable). These puzzle and reasoning gameplays with a strong sense of life rather than a straightforward performance greatly enhance the player's sense of immersion.
Everyone's social media dynamics are often updated
Multi-end plot with a certain depth
Finally, let's talk about the plot of this work, which may touch on extremely subtle spoilers.
The plot of this work has a certain relationship with the previous work, but it is very independent, and it will not have any impact even if you have never played the previous work. In fact, the main plot of this game is not complicated, but the layout is very clever.The videos at the beginning left enough suspense, and then several key figures appeared in succession. While following the case, several characters broke things from time to time and entwined each other, allowing players to peel off their cocoons from a large amount of information, fall into the story, and finally reveal the truth and the situation reversed. The overall rhythm is tight and sparse, and is relatively natural.
The video at the beginning is thrilling and full of suspense
The progress of different important things in the plot is not fixed. When there are many clues, players can choose what things to deal with first and then find out what contents. In addition, the different communication and responses of players and handling methods will have an impact on the ending, giving the game multiple endings. Although the main line of the game is not long, the multiple ending settings and the existence of a successful ending allow players to experience different novelty in multiple games, improving the game's perseverance. What the United States and China lack is that the game does not have manual save function, and can only have one save, and all saves will be cleared once it starts again. This may be to allow players to terminate the main line process multiple times, but it is somewhat inhumane enough, making it impossible to use the save file reading method commonly used in playing such games.
Archive function is not humane enough
Overview of the plot, the game does not just tell a simple thriller story. On the contrary, from the process of detecting the case, we can deeply feel that the game is so incisive and vivid in the lifestyles of the so-called Internet celebrities in the self-media era. The creation of character design, fan economy, the pressure of attention, the curse of fan fraud and black fans, plastic friendship, falsehood and truth... Although the national conditions are different and the personalities are different, under the strong lifelike atmosphere of the game, we can still feel it realistically, and that's really the case! It has to be said that the plot of the game has a certain depth and periodic significance.
Conclusion: A masterpiece worth trying
For players who value the plot and like to understand puzzle games, "SIMULACRA 2" is an excellent work that is definitely worth playing, with extremely innovative gameplay, excellent story articles, massive information retrieval and disposal, and the wonderful performances of several actors, all performed well. Especially the creation of the atmosphere is very attentive, which can bring players a strong sense of reality and indulgence. Of course, this work has the label of a fear game, and some scenes and photos are more thrilling. The sudden fear scenes are often caught off guard. Treacherous players need to try it with caution.
