Device 6 is, by all accounts, a text adventure. It is also riveting, tense, creepy, hilarious and well worth your time.
Device 6 is a mystery-thriller in which you play as Anna. Stranded on a desolate island and with no memory, Anna must overcome the increasingly bizarre challenges of her island prison if she ever hopes to escape. You swipe from left to right to read Anna’s story and solve puzzles. Puzzle solving involves little more than tapping buttons based on the clues you find in the environment. If you think you’ve heard this one before, give me a minute: It’s the execution that makes the game stand out.
Let’s get one thing clear up front, playing Device 6 isn’t like scrolling through an eBook. It’s so much more than that. To start, the text often takes on the form of the scene being described. Sentences are broken appropriately when Anna walks down a flight of stairs, simulating descent. If Anna becomes mesmerized or groggy, the characters become suitably unreadable or elongated. Paragraphs turn the same direction of the corner Anna rounds, adding a sense of space to the otherwise visually stoic text medium. Such design choices could be cynically reduced down to gimmicks if it weren’t for the compelling story they framed.
The story of Device 6 primarily revolves around Anna’s attempts to escape from the island and the obstacles put in her way to keep her from doing so. Nothing is quite that simple in Device 6, though, as sub-plots and intertextual allusions wrap around the narrative. While developer Simogo could have played their story completely straight with an unflinchingly dramatic tone, there is, thankfully, much room for levity.
The humor in Device 6 is spot-on, ribbing on the inanity of the island’s puzzles one moment and seamlessly transitioning into a critique of the current state of mobile games the next. That being said, when Device 6 wants to get unsettling and dramatic it is more than happy to do so, and with aplomb. Device 6 smashes into smithereens the hapless female victim trope perpetuated in so many games these days. As you learn more about Anna and see the world through her eyes, you quickly realize that she is a fleshed out, strong female character. Her actions in the game, many of which could be categorized as “badass,” serve to reinforce this image. The narrative finds a balance all writers strive for: it’s meticulously crafted while seeming effortless.
Similarly, the sounds and music of Device 6 create a mesmerizing, engrossing concoction that holds you firmly in its grip for the entire game. Simogo knows exactly when to lay on the dramatic strings, reach a climactic crescendo or just let the sweet sounds of 70s spy movie music keep you company as you zip back and forth between rooms desperately trying to pick apart the logic behind the puzzle you’ve happened upon. Similarly, they know restraint and are more than happy to let you roil in silence when the mood is right.
Device 6 isn’t just the kind of game that encourages you to keep a pad of paper and a pencil by you all times, it all but requires it. During the course of my playthrough, I produced nearly three pages of notes which, to the casual observer, would have appeared to be the scrawlings of a madman. While the idea of having to take notes outside of a game might sound tedious, I enjoyed this aspect of the game. Some of the most inspired puzzles were made all the more engaging by virtue of my having to step away from the game for a moment and actually think it out. On at least one occasion I didn’t realize I was actually solving a puzzle until I was writing it out and saw it materialize in front of me. This trial and error, the idea that a game staunchly refusing to give me hints or simply shepherd me along after I’ve grown frustrated, is something I’ve missed from games for some time, and Device 6 pulls it off swimmingly.
Device 6 is one of those games, like Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery, Crypt Worlds and Ridiculous Fishing, which remind me why I like games to begin with. It’s easy to become cynical about games, considering the current, slightly homogenized state of the industry, but every once in a while a glimmer of uniqueness is allowed to squirm into the light and receive its deserved praise.
Device 6 is a strange little game, no doubt about it. But it’s also finely crafted, knows what it is, and represents a significant, experimental move forward in terms of game narrative. You should buy Device 6.