It's a great game, I really loved the story. You should look into the author's other works. Digital: A Love Story, and Don't take it personally, babe, it just ain't your story
I tried the demo when it first came out, frankly, I quite enjoy it and has been waiting for sale. But, at this price (US$5.99), I'd go for Penny Arcade 3 with free copies of Cthulhu Saves the World and Breath of Death VII (US$4.99) instead.
EDIT: By the way, you should try A Love Story. It's a free game of the same genre made by the same dev.
I really loved Digital: A Love Story, and for some reason didn't buy Analogue when it was on summer-sale-before-the-summer-sale. So excited to see it here!
If you want to give Digital: A Love Story a shot, you can get it for free here. It's a very sweet tale that only takes an hour or two to complete, but it's completely worth it.
Uplink is pretty much the apex of the genre, imo.
If you're looking for something a little less puzzly and a little more story-focused, check out Digital: A Love Story. It's sort of an adventure game that takes place on the internet of the 1980s. The aesthetic makes you feel like you are on an old fashioned BBS. Rudimentary hacking plays an important role, but its just a good game in general.
There's a lot of good suggestions in here already, so let me suggest Digital: A Love Story.
If you like story based games and retrocomputing, you'll enjoy it. It's not very long or particularly replayable, as the story doesn't change. But it's totally worth your time once. Aside from being the spiritual predecessor to her own games, it feels like a predecessor to other interesting mobile stuff like A Normal Lost Phone/Another Lost Phone.
Digital: A Love Story is set in the same universe and explains a bit more of the background, but it's fine to play it afterwards or skip it entirely too. Just don't play Hate Plus before Analogue, other than that you should be fine no matter what.
Digital: A Love Story. It's a romance/mystery game that takes place on a simulated BBS. I've heard good things about Christine Love's other games too but I haven't played them so I can't recommend them personally.
The Whispered World is a great point and click adventure game from Daedelic Entertainment. It kind of reminds me of a cross between The Never Ending Story and a Hiyao Miyazaki movie.
If you are looking for an FPS that has a good or at least unique storyline, you should check out Spec Ops: The Line. Looks and plays like a generic shooter but has a really compelling story mode that focuses around the devastating effects of war. It is very violent, depressing, and disturbing but there isn't really a game like it in the FPS genre.
> 5) Not a Visual Novel. I've tried some specific titles in the past because I was told they had the kind of story I'm looking for right now. I was disappointed to find out this genre is basically Animu: The Video Game and really has nothing more to offer than standard anime stuff.
Try visual novels not made by Japanese devs. I'm generally really annoyed by anime-isms, but I really liked the games Digital: A Love Story (free) and its spiritual sequel Analogue: A Hate Story. Another game with a similar feel is Telltale's The Walking Dead, but you said you didn't like The Wolf Among Us, so it's maybe not up your alley.
Christine Love is a really interesting developer. I think my favourite of hers is still Digital: A Love Story, but dtipbijays and Analogue: A Hate Story are worth playing as well.
As a side note to this discussion, I suggest everyone (Especially people who used BBS' in the 80s) to play Digital: A Love Story, Available for free on the author's website. This game was my first real endeavor into VN games, and it hit hard. I loved the minimal interface and all the clever things it did with it.
If you liked don't take it personally babe, you might also like digital a love story which is free and also developed by the same person. I think it's worth noting how don't take it personally babe and digital a love story contrasts each other as the former is centered around human interaction and social media while the latter is more about solitude.
Link for digital a love story:
don't take it personally babe, it just ain't your story and Digital, a love story are both free, and were created by the same person who made Analogue: A Hate Story (which is currently $5 on Steam).
I loved "Digital: A Love Story", the atmosphere and the story are amazing and the fact that it is free makes it even better!
You can also download two of her previous works for free. Digital: A Love Story and don't take it personally, babe, it just ain't your story.
It's the direct sequel to a game called Analogue: A Hate Story, in which you're an investigator/data collector charged with searching through the logs of a dead generation ship to investigate why the ship disappeared. It uses a visual novel format and has themes of human-AI interaction, gender/sexuality issues (though handled in a way that doesn't beat you over the head with them, IMO), loneliness, etc. Hate Plus takes place immediately after Analogue, so you should play Analogue first.
You can also download and play some of the author's previous works for free: Digital: A Love Story (plotlines unrelated, although similar themes are addressed) and don't take it personally, babe, it just ain't your story are really awesome.
Also, one of the AIs likes cosplay and you can get married to her somehow.
Both games are PC-only and available on Steam.
It's not my typical genre but I've played a couple of really good ones. (less bullshitty anime stereorypes)
Digital is a free game and that's why I tried it. The dev made the spiritual sequel because that free little project got so popular. There's no harm in seeing whether you like it. It definitely has zero anime bullshit, but I'm pretty sure the "sequel" has at least some.
I haven't played Analogue before, however, I did play Digital: A love Story which is by the same developer/author. It's set in 1988 and the game/novel is set on 1988 themed PC software. So we're talking Dial Up modems and BBS boards. It's available for free here, the download links are near the bottom where it says Windows Mac Linux, I almost missed them trying to find a download link just now. I got into it more than I thought I would, and it made me a little annoyed that I was born a few years too late for real life BBS things.
Edit: Just rebeat it, it's cool but there is some seriously repetitive number entry.
In an attempt to persuade those who were considering checking them out but didn't feel they had the time or could be bothered to google them. Here, for your clicking pleasure!
don't take it personally, babe, it just ain't your story
Oh and they're both awesome, especially Digital.
For anyone wanting to give something similar a try before buying (although there's also a demo for Analogue itself), the author has free older works on her website:
The predecessor to the Analog is the wonderful, short, and free Digital: A Love Story
Although it isn't required to play Analog, Digital is good all in its own right. It's not necessarily a "prequel" as nothing that happens in Digital really matters to Analog. Though Digital takes place in the same universe, its in the 1980s rather than the 2600s
Digital A Love Story
I stayed up all night playing it until the end. Its not really that much of a love story - just a really great game exploring a mystery on the billboard system (pre-internet).
Point and Click:
The longest Journey
Grim Fandigo
Even though this is 4 months late, this post is in the top 10 so why not? When I read the title I instantly thought of a vague indie game I had played long ago, I spent an hour searching for it and here it is: http://scoutshonour.com/digital/
It's almost exactly what you described and is also a really memorable and amazing free game.
It's a fairly polarising VN, I like it but there are plenty who didn't. If you're unsure then I'd recommend trying the two VNs that she released for free here (Digital) and here (Don't take it personally babe) to get a feel for her writing style.
Both great visual novels with very heavy focus on societal issues. In Analogue, it's the societal decay and how women were treated (or mistreated). Hate Plus is the sequel, and it deals with the events that happened before the ones you read about in Analogue. Just started Hate Plus, so not completely sure, but for now, the focus seems to be on the political issues. Both of them very good VNs with very involving stories and some pretty good soundtrack.
Just a warning: they are very text-heavy. You will need to pore through a lot of documents to piece together the story. In a way, they are more like books with chapters in completely jumbled order.
Also, the distant prequel to Analogue, Digital A Love Story is completely free.
Digital: A Love Story, and don't take it personally, babe, it just ain't your story Are both English language, free, and pretty damn good. Digital's got an interface that takes some adjusting to if you're under the age of 30, though.
I'm a pretty occasional follower of VNs, and yea, I do gravitate to OELVNs myself - but I've been a fan of Dischan for quite a while, right from the initial Cradle Song demo and then definitely since Juniper's Knot.
Christine Love is the other Standard OELVN recommendation; she and even each individual game tends to be pretty love-it-or-hate-it, though. I've enjoyed all of them (yes, even dtipbijays) but Digital: A Love Story is both her first and most well-liked piece.
Digital: A Love Story is a free adventure game/visual novel from the talented Christine Love. I greatly recommend you check it out whoever you are, and experience this song as the lovely surprise it turns out to be.
Adding to Analogue: A Hate Story, I would recommend the free game Christine Love did before that called Digital: A Love Story.
Katawa Shoujo is another Visual Novel you could try. It's free as well.
While not a Solely text based game. It does involve alot of text via emails.
Give Digital: A Love Story a try.
One of the best games I've played in a while.
I literally din't comprehend the ending initially because I thought the possibility of that all being a joke was so preposterous.
Digital:A Love Story by the same dev is, in my opinion, a lot better. It's incredibly non-linear and confusing at sometimes, but I enjoyed it quite a bit.
I haven't played Astebreed, but more on the other two:
Analogue is a very well-written VN that's not, like, super skeevy. You investigate the history and downfall of a spaceship-colony thing and use critical reading skills to piece together puzzles. It's a spiritual sequel to the free and also cool Digital: A Love Story.
Cosmic Star Heroine is a cool JRPG that I found really easy. It's from the devs of Breath of Death VII and Cthulu Saves the World, but with a more serious story (still plenty of humor). It hooked me for a while, and I intend to finish it, but it's chilling on my backburner for now. Its combat system is actually fun--it feels like a natural evolution of the older FF games. Most like FF6 with all the unique skills, but more customizable and the characters' skills interact more. I left it for Trails in the Sky.
Also, I haven't played the PC version of KoF 2002, but I played plenty of the Xbox version and it was pretty fun.
A computer mystery/romance set five minutes into the future of 1988. I can guarantee at least ONE of the following is a real feature: Discover a vast conspiracy lurking on the internet! Save the world by exploiting a buffer overflow!
Stranded 2: An retro 3D survival game where you have to survive on an island. Contains cartoon violence and yes you might have to kill some cartoon-y animals to get meat from them.
A non-violent award winning game is Portal and Portal 2on steam. Its really one of the best puzzle games in video game history. Its got a great back story and main character Chel can only use her portal gun to solve the puzzles and the portal gun can only create portals it can't actually hurt anyone or anything directly.
If you look for games with the Visual Novel tag on Steam, you'll find a few similar games that are free. Be sure to read the description and check for other tags to avoid anything violent or sexual.
Might also want to check out Digital: A Love Story since it's not on Steam, but its sequel (Analogue: A Hate Story) was fairly popular.
Digital: A Love Story
It's just really nice, and quite short. If you grew up in the 80's/90's there'll be a lot of familiar stuff. It's really really nice(and free), give it a try.
Ctrl+F
>Digital: A Love Story
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A small game set in the early days of the internet with an incredible chiptunes soundtrack. You play as a girl trying to solve the "murder" of a bunch of AIs. This game has always been free.
http://scoutshonour.com/digital/
There's PC, mac and linux versions.
Digital A Love Story. Much more visual novel, but it's short and fun. Found free online. http://scoutshonour.com/digital/
If you enjoy that, the creator also made Analog A Hate Story, which can be purchased on Steam.
Complete tangent, but since we're in the thread: i've never played that game, but someone once told me i had to play it after i spent half an hour raving about Digital: A Love Story, another free very good very out-of-the-box visual novel-esque game.
Not really, Christine Love has a pretty distinct style. There's Digital: A Love Story, which shares a universe with Analogue and explains some lore details that aren't answered anywhere else, so that may be worth trying out.
The next closest thing I have is eden*, which doesn't have the exploration gameplay, but has a somewhat similar premise where everyone dies at the end, and there's some spaceships and military stuff but it's mostly a character-driven romance.
If you're into more story-orientated games, something like Digital: A Love Story might be up your alley (it's so good!). The same could be said for Undertale, which is cheap, similarly powerful and more involved in a gameplay sense.
Best of luck on saving up for that new PC!
Well make sure you watch Jason Scott's documentary on the BBS era. Great program. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBS:_The_Documentary
Also check out the free game: Digital: A Love story. It simulates a Amiga like OS in which you dial into a BBS, gather information which unfolds into some dialing around and solving a bit of a mystery. http://scoutshonour.com/digital/
It really was one of my favorite era of computing.
I started mine in the 6th grade with a 2400 Baud modem, running Hermes which was a Macintosh based BBS software. I also was a Co-SysOp on my friend's Telegard/Renegade BBS. My friend and I both used our personal phone lines for BBS, so we got CB Radio Base Stations so we could talk (Parents didn't understand why my phone line couldn't be used). I remember giving my first girlfriend a handheld CB to get a hold of me because the BBS must live.
There was something very special when you'd get home and start dialing your BBSs and hitting that busy signal and letting it just keep redialing then hearing it actually connect and running up to your computer for your time on that BBS.
If you have a 3DS, check out 999. It's a really good visual novel/puzzle game that you'll want to play several times over to get the full story. And if you don't mind something with a lot less action and a lot more text, try Digital: A Love Story (free!), Analogue: A Hate Story, and Hate Plus. Those are three of my favourites. The first one is only vaguely connected to the other two, but Hate Plus is a direct sequel to Analogue.
Digital: A Love Story is a great (and short) visual novel centered around an online relationship in the early days of the internet. It's only a game inasmuch as you read emails and type in passwords, but it's still of the more affecting things I've played.
Also, it's totally free, which is neat.
It's a visual novel set in 1988 where you browse some Bulletin Board Systems of the 80's on an Amiga computer to unfold the plot.
It's a great short game, I loved it!
The OST from free visual novel / game Digital: A Love Story. It's all fantastic if you dig chiptune.
And above all: Paper Dolls by 4mat.
The "*" thing makes a bit more sense if you've played one of her earlier games, Digital: A Love Story (freeware).
As the name implies, Analogue is a spiritual successor, but the games aren't directly related.
I really liked Digital: A Love Story when I played it some year ago.
Then there's don't take it personally, babe, it just ain't your story from the same developer. It was good but didn't like it as much as Digital: A Love Story.
If you'll forgive a somewhat bizarre suggestion (in that it's a game technically) there's Digital: A Love Story.
Like I said, it's a game officially, but purely text based and is more or less really a short novel.
It takes place in 1988 and the lead character has just got set up on a pretty primitive Internet. He learns about hacking and other things from other users he encounters, meets a girl, and gets tangled up in a murder mystery.
It's not purely cyberpunk per se, but it still evokes that kind of vibe.
You can grab it for free Here.
You should include the creator's earlier works too! They are both pretty great, and I think Digital: A Love Story is one of the best VN type games I've ever played. They're both free, as well.
don't take it personally, babe, it just ain't your story
(kind of a paedophilia warning on dont take it personally though? it's as consensual as "may december" relationships get but that doesn't mean that it's not a 38 year old man in an intimate relationship w a teenager. that depends on the dialogue choices you make, though)
http://scoutshonour.com/digital/ is a good example of a VN from someone in the same boat as you and used Ren'Py to her success, where she had a story and made it interacive in a rather fitting way.
The only things I can think of that are still fully text based are MUDs. dikuMUD is fairly easy to modify and add rooms and make zones and such once you get the basics but hopefully someone knows of something oriented more for single-player.
Freebies? Christine Love's Digital: A Love Story is still among my favourites. Not really a traditional game, more a visual novel framed in more game-like interactions - but it tells an absolutely superb story.
Hey man, couldn't help but see BBS mentioned when this game comes into mind. You'll love it:
http://scoutshonour.com/digital/
edit: Would have any clue on how active usenet is now a days? If it is active and worthwhile how would I be able to experience it? Would google groups do?
fletch44, I did not grow up in the era of BBSes but found new found respect and thrill for it after playing a game/visual novel by Christine Love called "Digital: A Love Story". Check it out, it's free and so cool!
Digital: A love story.
I got invested pretty quickly in that game. The pacing was spot on. It's free to play if you would like to give it a shot, as I don't know how many people have actually heard of this game.
Try Christina Love's stuff. You can get Digital: A Love Story and DTIPB for free. Start with Digital, it's easily her best work.
There's also Dear Esther. It's basically a first person shooter without the shooting. You explore an island, finding a story along the way. It's also a beautiful game.
If you miss modems, BBS's, Amigas, or any combination thereof, you have to give this free game a try! I remember being sufficiently geeked by it a few years ago.
An excellent track from a great FREE indie game, it really fits the mood and era the game is set in. 4mat is a legendary composer and this is one of my favorites of his.
Oh yeah, I'm well aware of the BSS systems. I feel bad for missing that part of history. Part of why I liked Digital: A Love Story is because it let you emulate it a bit.
Been getting into visual novels lately. The setup files were on my computer, which is the essential element to bring to asian parties for me, and for a few other people as well. The video games were getting stale so I decided to install and boot it up with next to no idea what to expect.
I read Digital: A Love Story. Short read, "a computer mystery/romance set five minutes into the future of 1988." It's got a weird interface and you never see what the protagonist types, so you fill in a lot of what happens with your own thoughts. Give it a try if you're interested. Free and small filesize.
This is what you're looking for, but probably not in the way you're looking for it: Digital: A Love Story - http://scoutshonour.com/digital/
There's also: L.A. Noire (the most dramatic!), Dreamweb, Shenmue, even Amnesia: Dark Descent. A few point n' click adventure games might satisfy your cravings (as the games you mentioned are essentially dressed up Point n' clickers) - try the Broken Sword series to get started.
You could always play The Sims and create your own dramas! :-P