It’s been a long time since I’ve played an FMV or choose your own adventure style game. I’ve noted that FMVs have been making a comeback for a good many years now, while CYOAs have continued to evolve and mix in other elements.
Breakout 13 is a Chinese game. So if you’re not up for subtitles and can’t understand Chinese, best leave it here. Personally I think the subs are easy to follow. There’s a few typos and grammatical errors but it’s minor. The other important thing is the game is sold in two halves. The DLC is the second half of the game. I think this is fine as you can try out the first 3 hours and choose whether to continue with the rest or not. I played it all. The overall price is reasonable considering the quality and scope of the production.
It starts with teenager Zhang Yang being expelled from school for truancy. Yang’s mother blames an internet and gaming addiction, then enrols him in a special school to cure his behaviour problems. What Yang discovers beneath the happy summer camp exterior is a totalitarian re-education prison using a treatment that mixes psychological torture and misuse of electrotherapy. All at the behest of the wicked principal professor Yang. Zhang Yang’s objectives are to escape and exposing the school’s immoral practices, which naturally gets very twisty.
Making Yang an avid gamer lends a little self aware meta to the writing as Yang sometimes refers to people as NPCs and objects as special items collected. I’m a massive cynic, so this set up felt a bit corny at first. However, it doesn’t take long for the serious themes to emerge and for me to get caught up in the large cast of characters. I found the overall tone didn’t get too heavy, despite the serious topic. In part because of a strong focus on prison break style adventuring. Also because it has the feel of a formulaic young adult TV show and intentionally throws in some lighter moments and caricatures. Even so it does have some surprises and the story unfolds in an involving way. I was invested in it. The middle section of the game is the most tense and got me thinking deeply about how to best balance everyone’s needs with my actions. It’s this ever changing relationship matrix that is the core of the game and in my opinion the best bit.
It’s possible to at any time view the storyline and redo choices that will update the timeline. Characters opinions of Yang will be affected along with the flow of the plot. I mostly lived with my choices and only fine tuned after hitting a game over. Occasionally doing something stupid just to see what happens. Based on some of the achievements there are at least a few wild options to discover, and I can tell I’m way off optimal performance.
Littered throughout are interactive moments. Some are just quicktime events. There are timed investigations where areas in a scene are highlighted to collect and analyse evidence or items for use. Also some tasks of searching or listening through surveillance footage and audio. It’s relatively simple stuff and the time limits are manageable. Success adds options to later scenes. As any action can be redone at any time, the active gathering and time limits are actually kinda unnecessary. I think it’s main value is to stay connected to what’s happening and build a bond with the characters. And it’s fairly effective as I was dashing about to get things done for an unbroken play through.
Most, if not all, of the filming has been done on location, and looks better for it. The cinematography is as good as some TV shows. Time, effort and money has clearly been spent on this. The cast, despite being on the younger side do a good job with the acting. Don’t expect oscars but it’s not cringe either. Thankfully the two major opposing forces, Yang and the Principal, hold it all together nicely. The principal is played pitch perfect as an ego driven villain. The actor portraying Yang has to handle a lot of layers of emotions with all the deception and steps up to the task. My favourite supporting character is fellow student Qi M.
Like I said, I’m not one to get caught up in emotional plots and Breakout 13 at times lays things on thick and at others embraces the more distanced gaming nature of it all. It was an overall fun ride with lots of branching story possibilities that I’m interested in tinkering with to see how characters alter. It has five special endings to uncover. I wouldn’t want to stare at the plot too long for fear of holes; regardless of that there is an engaging sense of adventure that I’ve been sucked into through the power of classic themes about fighting an evil system. A good entry for the genre.
Available from Steam.
mishmash 