Game Reviews

Continue?9876543210

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iOS
| Continue?9876543210
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Continue?9876543210
|
iOS
| Continue?9876543210

What happens to video game characters when they die?

They re-materialise and start again, or continue, of course. At least, that's what we all think when we stab that button.

Continue?9876543210 paints a different picture.

Moving on

At the beginning of this game, your generic adventurer snuffs it, and finds himself on the cusp of some kind of digital afterlife.

Wandering around a strange digital limbo, you discover that your beloved is also here, and you embark on a quest to find her.

At least, I think that's what's happening. You see, Continue?9876543210 goes straight past enigmatic, carries on through baffling, and sets up camp on the edge of nonsensical.

Part of this is down to the fact that English doesn't seem to be the developer's first language (or at least, we hope it's not). They've attempted to mitigate this with an early line explaining how the afterlife messes with your mind, scrambling linguistic skills, but that doesn't make it any easier to understand.

In limbo

The structure of the game is similarly all over the place. After the introductory section you're essentially dumped into a sparse war-torn village (possibly signifying the medium's obsession with violence) with little in the way of instruction.

After a period of confused wandering, you'll pick up a number of oddly fractured missions from (un)dead soldiers. After more lurching around the snag-filled game universe, which looks like some virtual reality gameshow from the '90s, you'll eventually stumble upon a mission section.

This might involve a clunky 2D platformer section, or a simple puzzle. None of them is particularly well-executed or integrated into the wider game.

Warping back into the main hub, you'll find lots of chompy creatures scooting after you, requiring a thwack of your sword to fend off.

End

If all of this is reading like the ramblings of a freshly awoken person trying to describe a weird dream, well, that's kind of how playing Continue?9876543210 makes you feel.

It's a strange, fractured game full of vaguely coherent happenings mixed in with seemingly random occurrences and dialogue that occasionally very nearly makes sense.

It makes your head hurt.

You might start with Continue?9876543210, then, but continuing will be a tough ask.

Continue?9876543210

A befuddling game whose creator attempts to mask its incoherent world and sloppy game design with suggestions of intrigue and profundity
Score
Jon Mundy
Jon Mundy
Jon is a consummate expert in adventure, action, and sports games. Which is just as well, as in real life he's timid, lazy, and unfit. It's amazing how these things even themselves out.