"Thomas is not alone" evaluation

"Thomas is not alone," not as sophisticated as those simple colors and monotonous backgrounds that make it look as if there are countless different types of games in the app store. But because of the author's careful grinding, it has a unique charm.

advantage

Plot excellent game is challenging

Disadvantages

English slightly obscure switch control mode slightly worse price slightly more expensive

"At the beginning of the world, mankind survived and all things were good. Humans created the AI ​​according to their own thinking, and gave them various names for fun and identification. Thomas-AT-23-6-12 is one of them At first, everything is fine. "

In the dark world, Thomas walked alone.

In 2010, Mike Bithell was still working on a game design at BlitzGames. He was mesmerized by the fact that he came into contact with many excellent indie games.

However, it is not only the excitement and joy that comes with it, but also frustration and loss. In an interview at the 2013 European Games show, Mike Bithell admitted he was not a good programmer, and even in his own words, "I'm like code shit."

Such a huge gap, let Mike Bithell feel jealous and frustrated. He began to think about what exactly he should do. Ultimately, the two mindsets mixed together, driving him to find the direction of their own development. Since not good at programming is already a fact established, then why not avoid the innovative and unique design, starting from those types of games we have done. "So I decided to make an intuitive and simple game and try my best to polish it." Thus, "Thomas Was Alone" was born.

Thomas-AT-23-6-12, Thomas, standing in nothingness, overwhelmed, said it was walking, so it felt the speed, the friction, and all the blessings of mechanics in the universe. Entering the portal and going through one space after another, it begins to think about the meaning of its existence, and it senses a mood called solitude that it hopes to meet with other AIs. "

"Thomas is not alone" is a platform puzzle game that looks like the innumerable same-type games in the app store. The protagonist is the box, the game world is dry color, and eventually either the protagonist escaped a variety of spikes pass, or let the player scream in roar again and again. It seems that this is what this type of game should do.

But Mike Bithell does not think so.

Thomas's first friend, Chris.

With regard to the theme of friendship, the spiritual inspiration from the film "Three Kings of Jail", the skill set of multiple roles, and the thinking of modernism and minimalist style, these elements have subverted the original concepts of such games and their Join to make "Thomas not alone" looks different.

In October 2010, the prototype of the game landed on the Kongregate Flash gaming platform for the first time. After receiving the praise of the players, Mike Bithell suddenly put it off the shelves, began a two-year grinding process. During these two years, he wrote scripts for each of the characters in the story, giving them a different personality; finding British actor Danny Wallace to dub his narration, using the "Milky Way Roaming Guide" style of humor Every sentence; he started learning Unity engine, which makes the game has a beautiful light and shadow effects; acquaintances found like-minded creators, for the game to build a perfect sound. Eventually, June 2012, "Thomas is not alone," once again meet with the players. Starting from a flash game, it finally boarded Steam, PS3, PSV, finally landing in May this year, iPad, completed a amazing evolution of the game.

"This world is not true, and this is what Thomas got after he came into contact with the source of knowledge, and in those twelve seconds he saw everything he was born to pursue: there was a rich and varied outside of the monotonous world Human civilization, he was deeply intoxicated, but at the same time he also realized that the danger of slowly gathering behind the world is falling, the door of truth is gradually closing down, that the world seen through the Internet is leaving them Go away. "

iPad version of the game's operation is very simple, players only need to click the left and right keys and jump keys to move the role of the game, that square. In the game players will encounter a wide range of roles, they all have different abilities, such as Claire will swim, to help friends jump higher Laura and so on. Players must make good use of every ability to overcome various obstacles. For example, at some level, it is imperative that other characters and antigravity James be balanced in the air to press the switch to get everyone through the portal. This requires careful thinking of players Caixing, not only test the wisdom, but also on the player's ability to control requirements.

The role of the game switch need to tap the different color blocks on the screen to complete, this mechanism is partially ported from other platform versions. But in my opinion, this is not suitable for operation on the iPad. When faced with the complex requirements of "air balance" as mentioned above, players are often confused by the wrong person. Relative to the establishment of the switch button for each person, it would be better to join the direct click on the character selection mechanism, so that the game can play more easily.

Thomas and finally the final Yan.

"Yes, they are, Thomas is no longer alone.Laura, Chris, John, Claire, James, and his friends, are with him.With the power of friends, they can escape the bad luck of being deleted. Thousands of AIs exist in this world, and the source of knowledge can belong only to themselves or to all AIs. Ultimately, they decide to sacrifice, leaving all AI a brighter future. "

In my opinion, the story of the game can be divided into two categories. The first game of the gameplay to serve the story, such as "Republic" (Republique). In another genre, the plot paves the way for games such as Kingdom Rush. The "Thomas is not alone," but the perfect blend of plot and gameplay, the two complement each other.

The story is divided into two parts before and after the game, the first half tells the story of Thomas and his friends, the adventures and sacrifices, while the second half of the story even more thrilling, worth all the players to personally experience.

The game is almost perfect, but there are still some drawbacks. On the one hand, its narration is slightly obscure due to its full English humorous style, which is somewhat troubling to English-speaking friends who are not very good. On the other hand, its price is as high as RMB60, which is the same as the price on the Steam platform. For the games on the iOS platform, the price is not close to the people.

But I still have to say that this game is good value for money. Not only because of its thematic appeal, but also for the author Mike Bithell crafted spirit. Finally, pay tribute to Mike Bithell, Thomas, his friends, and B166ER.