AI: The Somnium Files

Genre: Graphic Adventure / Visual Novel

Players: 1

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Review:

AI: The Somnium Files is a Graphic Adventure with strong Visual Novel elements that places you in the role of an investigator in a futuristic police force that uses AI-augmented vision and subconscious-exploring technology (a la Inception) to solve crimes.

This game’s story and presentation is one of its strongest elements. It starts with a gruesome murder, and you’re immediately introduced to protagonist Date (pronounced Daw-Tay), a member of a special police task force with bizarre futuristic technology, including the aforementioned Inception-esque dream technology. Date has been assigned to investigate the crime in part because he knows the victim, and the investigation will soon come to involve others in his life as well.

The story is told in a manner that’s very reminiscent of an anime, with the game taking place in Tokyo and characters fitting into standard anime archetypes, although they’re depicted with enough depth here, and the story itself is so engrossing that it really pulls you in – the game really makes you want to learn more about this world, and discover just what could have led to such a horrifying murder.

However, one of the more inventive ways the game draws you into this world is when the game has the player go into Somnium, the game’s term for a person’s dream state or subconscious. Here, players take control of an avatar of Date’s AI companion, who must navigate the dream state to not only uncover clues to the mysteries at hand, but also possibly heal the mental trauma of the subject.

During these sections of the game, things play out like a warped Graphic Adventure, where players are observing the environment, looking for clues, and using items to solve puzzles, but since this is taking place in a dream state, the logic of everything doesn’t follow real-world rules, and players have to try to wrap their brain around the strange logic this presents, often with symbolism playing just as much an element as traditional storytelling.

These sections are also presented in a way that limits a player’s time to move around and interact in this state, forcing players to be selective about which actions to take in this limited time. I was initially wary of this gameplay element, but players can at any time simply stop moving and look around to think about what they’ll do next, and the clock stops with them, meaning that feeling of being rushed isn’t as much of a concern, and instead the limited time means that players will have to be sure that every action they take is one they’re fairly sure will help them accomplish their goals. I really appreciated how this encouraged taking a measured, thoughtful approach to this game’s mind-bending puzzles.

Outside of the Somnium sections, the game plays out more like a Visual Novel, with players observing environments, having conversations with various characters, and using the protagonist’s artificial eye (itself a major character in the story) to dig up information.

If there was one part of the game that I felt was a bit lacking, it was this part of the game, which comprises the majority of the game. It’s not bad, by any stretch, as there is some very good story conveyed through this part of the game. However, there’s nothing here that compares to the puzzle-solving found in the Somnium sections, and often I found myself wondering if my choices in these sections mattered, something that never seemed in question in the Somnium sections.

Graphically, this game is good, using subtle cel shading to give this game an anime-style look that fits the story. It’s not perfect – the environments could do with a bit more detail and the characters’ mouths not moving in time with what they’re saying feels a bit off, but on the whole this game looks pretty good visually.

The sound on the other hand, is pretty fantastic, and in particular I have to give credit to the voice acting in this game, which is pretty excellent. Even though the writing at times dips into the cross-cultural awkwardness that’s often typical of anime localizations, the voice acting does a great job of conveying the characters’ feelings and giving us a good feel for them as actual people.

I really enjoyed AI: The Somnium Files, thanks to the great story and presentation, and in particular the Somnium sections of the game, which are so surreal and with such unique puzzle logic that there doesn’t seem much else out there like them. It’s a shame that the rest of the game’s gameplay isn’t quite as engaging and imaginative as these portions, but the story generally picks up the slack. Fans of Graphic Adventures, anime, and sci-fi who don’t have a problem with creepy, violent imagery should consider this game a must-buy.

tl;dr – AI: The Somnium Files is a game that’s part Graphic Adventure, part Visual Novel, that has the player investigating a gruesome murder using a futuristic augmented eye, an AI partner, and Inception-style dream-invasion tech. It’s a game with a fantastic story and presentation, and some wildly inventive puzzles in the Somnium sections of the game, and even though the gameplay in the rest of the game isn’t quite as engaging, this is all-around still an excellent game that really draws you into its world and makes you want to find out more about its characters and story.

Grade: A-

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