Everyone has the impulse and instinct to break the "box", whether the "box" is protecting anything or not. ”
On the 24th, just as I was carrying the bag in my hand and preparing to go home, another reviewer who had not talked privately for a long time suddenly said privately: "Bubble Winterscape developer Traveler plans to steam on that game Do you know?" "Green Box", we are ready to find someone to write, this work you can not take? ”
In fact, because of the changes in my three-dimensional life, most of my energy has been put into real-life work. Now, I am in the intelligence Ji game department hanging on the name of the audit of the fish every day, occasionally review the draft, blow water with friends, and have not contributed to the game department for a long time. At the moment, this sudden task surprised me a little, I looked at the medicine box in the bag, thinking that I had not yet prepared for the course that began on the 28th. I was about to say no, but before the words could be sent, a request for an article and a brief description of a game were sent across the screen.
After a moment, I pressed the delete button, typed with one hand with difficulty, and sent it out.
"I took this job."
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > "reality" in the introduction</h1>
If I were asked what impressed me most about the game before I entered it, I would say: because of the generalization of the game's plot in the introduction.
(Game Steam Mall interface)
The story of "Green Box" takes place on a small island called Pinghua Island, and the male protagonist Tan Yan left his hometown after graduating from high school and came to the town alone. Here, he has no relatives, friends, classmates and lovers. I can only do repetitive and boring work at a convenience store, barely making ends meet. Until a chance encounter, he saw the opportunity that seemed to be able to change his life and break the "box" of his imprisonment.
If the plot of the game is as the introduction says, this is undoubtedly a realistic style AVG that tells the current situation of some people in contemporary rural youth. Because of their family conditions and community atmosphere, they are unable to get more education opportunities; or they are limited by their growing environment and connections, unlike the "golden" urban children, who acquire various skills that may be able to make a living in extracurricular activities. Once you jump out of your familiar environment and start chasing the so-called "city dream" and "development dream", it is inevitable that you will be forced by life to run and work, and gradually numb and gradually lose yourself in a repressive atmosphere.
We may wish to review the domestic AVG, two "predecessors" who are also known for depicting "reality". In the "100 Days of College Entrance Examination Love", which I like very much, the "reality" experienced by the protagonists of the game is more like the popular favorability setting in the ordinary galgame, which is indirectly reflected in the form of "score". Even if there is actually a way in the game to completely ignore the results and focus on the girl, you can still get to a good ending. But for most of the first-time players who do not look at the strategy, it actually violates the choice logic brought to the player by the creation of the game atmosphere.
("100 Days of College Entrance Examination Love")
And because it is related to current events, it is more famous for its "Secret Story of Hedge Village". It is an AVG game with puzzle solving elements based on the real -- "Raiden King". But in fact, the "reality" depicted in this game is more in service of the shaping of the game's horror atmosphere and the rationality of the puzzle scene. The current events of his creative inspiration and the social dynamics behind them can only be mentioned in one stroke, and there is not much mention.
("The Secret Story of Hedge Village")
Therefore, if the plot of "Green Box" is really as the introduction says, it tells the story of a young man who has just stepped into society and barely makes a living. Such a niche but realistic subject matter is undoubtedly very attractive to me who comes from a small town and will enter the society to start working.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > "reality" in the background</h1>
When you first enter the game, the most eye-catching thing for players is undoubtedly the setting of its background.
The production team set the background of "Green Box" in an era similar to that of the late 1980s and early 1990s. At the moment of "0202", the "post-90s" and "post-00s" who were once at the bottom of the despised chain in the network have many people entered the society and even established a family, and they will become the most important player group of this game. For this group of players, this is an era that is both familiar and unfamiliar.
Familiarity lies in the fact that we, the "post-90s" and "post-00s", have been influenced by our parents and Hong Kong movies and TV dramas in the early years since childhood, and have the most basic understanding of the cultural symbols and lifestyles of this era. The strangeness is that after all, we are not the personal experience of that era, and all the cognition of this is stuck in the imagination and the memory of film and television images.
As a result, the production team needs to consider more about "that era in the eyes of the player" than the actual situation, which will create a romantic sense of "looking back at the past" for the atmosphere of the game. In fact, early in the game's flow, we can really feel the efforts of the production team in shaping such a sense of age.
(Stills from Golden Rooster 2002)
First of all, the game adopts a realistic style similar to "three two" or real-life copying. This style of painting may be a little retro compared to the bright color painting style of many AVG now, and the character standing paintings outlined in a few strokes are not very beautiful compared to now. However, under the performance of this style of painting, the old-fashioned television at home, the video tape in hand, and the ticket roll in the video hall are all unique to the cultural symbols of that era, all of which are vivid. The appearance of illustrations full of 1980s-style street scenes, sandy beaches under the sun, and golden wheat fields that often appear when the male protagonist recalls them also reminds the player that this is not the twenty-first century we are familiar with.
Later, the writing in the game is quite good, and the description of people's lifestyles in the text is also quite contemporary. Whether it is the male protagonist's discussion of the mobile phone "big brother" that appears in the big city, or the male protagonist's colleague holding a landline phone and his girlfriend "cooking telephone porridge". We can all think of Hong Kong films, holding the "big brother" to command the little brother, the gangster with one hand covering the sky; and the ignorant girl who throbbed in her heart because of the call with her sweetheart, and unconsciously wrapped her delicate jade fingers around the telephone line. Such a "sense of picture" writing is actually a very valuable thing.
(Game Screen)
Based on these two, the game's plot performance is very good. Whether it is the wandering and confused male protagonist who encounters the mysterious ruins, the camera pulls from "face to the ground" to "looking at the starry sky"; or at the climax of some plots or small climaxes, the expression of the text changes from the traditional bottom box to other ways of popping up, and can better make the player's get to the atmosphere in the scene... The list goes on and on. Objectively speaking, due to the engine, we really can't force this game to really make the dynamic effect of the image. But in this genre of game that can be described as "PPT Super Enhanced", this level has been quite remarkable.
The game's graphics, writing and performance together frame a story for the player: in life, there are only repetitive routes, repetitive operations, repetitive stories, and the people around them who are constant and have no emotional intersection. As a result, the game depicts the helplessness of the male protagonist in the face of realistic oppression to the fullest.
This also directly reflects a real problem - when the descendants of farmers gradually begin to leave the place where their ancestors have lived for generations with a "refugee" mentality, they come to the big city to pursue their dreams. At this point, the state of affairs today is not fundamentally different from thirty years ago. The only question is whether their departure was really entirely self-willed. Or was there something in the message he received that blinded him?
Originally, it would have been enough to make the player emotionally engaged. However, when I played these content that can be called excellent, I was not very excited, and I did not even substitute into the perspective of the male protagonist. This is because, when I set the time to 20 minutes ago, the moment I first opened the game, the "surprise" brought to me by the game made me vaguely uneasy in my heart.
Why is the BGM in the game menu so weird. So much so that it's more like a... Horror games?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > "reality" in the text</h1>
After completing the level, if there is anything in "Green Box" that is most unexpected to me, I will definitely say without hesitation: plot.
Although I am not a video author, I saw the production team's request on the Steam Mall page, as well as my personal judgment. It is believed that any slightest spoiler in this game will affect the experience of the game, so it will not mention too much about the plot itself.
If I had to make a comment, I think: this is a game with a better plot structure, which can reverse this kind of operation after the player is unexpectedly reversed; at the same time, it is also an AVG that is more inclined to express the author's desire to create, even if the idea is not particularly novel, but this situation is very easy to go to the blind spot of the author's self-congratulation and obscure text.
In reality, however, combining the Steam comments and my personal experience, I believe that most players have found what they need in this open-ended ending.
As the game says in its introduction, "Each of us experiences repetitive and boring study and work, as if something is holding us back in the dark." This work focuses on this distress and desire to break the "box" and interprets it as a complete story. ”。
When we become more and more irritable about the bitterness of life, and sigh at the point of not being able to prove our existence, someone always tells us: you are pretentious, you are contrived, "We all came this way." ”。 In the face of such questioning of one's own inner feelings as oneself and others, in Camus's words, one has two choices, "physical suicide" or "philosophical suicide."
Some of those who survive are afraid of the meaningless pain of life, choose to give up thinking about it, and surrender to the values that all kinds of "others" tell you. They began to believe in success, PUA, and accepted various beliefs and outlooks on life, and even some of the "XX doctrines" that sounded very high, and their common feature was that they would only feel "because I am XXX, so I should do this."
For example, if you agree that people do not struggle to die, they will try to earn money to work overtime until the end of the night, and regard "996" as a blessing in life; for example, for a person who regards "he should only be ordinary" and regards it as a creed of life, thinking about "what is the meaning of my existence" will only make them laugh and feel that it is meaningless to do this. At this time, they quietly stared at the color block of the "the instrument" and told you with a straight face that such a life should not be taken for granted. This is the "suicide of philosophy."
(Illustrated by famous works)
There are also some people who are not willing to stop here, and they never give up their exploration of the meaning of life, until one day they suddenly understand: since others, society, and the world cannot let me find the meaning of my own existence, why do not I create meaning for myself. Even if the meaning created and the path of practicing it are incompatible with secular values and make others feel childish and ridiculous, they will not stop moving forward.
Because --
The meaning of my life is not in the right or wrong of what I do that others judge. It's about what I did before my life died.
Although in most cases, the distance of the arm extension is less than or equal to the length of the "box". But when I need to put my hand farther away, why must there be a "box" to stop me?
(Stills from Oedipus The King, 1967)
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > "reality" in the flaw</h1>
I have to admit that "Green Box" as the first game of the production team, there are still many aspects of the content processing slightly green.
In the most intuitive picture performance. First of all, perhaps because of practical factors such as working hours and the epidemic, the reuse of illustration materials is very serious, and the photos come and go. And as I said above, the game's style is slightly retro. It can even be said that the style of the game is actually quite close to the popular style in orange light games, which may give some players a sense of cheapness. In addition, as an AVG, there is no picture book function.
(Character Standing Painting)
In terms of BGM, the game part of the track is very good. During the game, the insertion of BGM sets off the atmosphere quite well. But it is debatable whether the mood it renders is consistent with the player's first impression of the game's plot.
In terms of plot, in addition to the lack of pretense and slightly bluntness in the role transformation of the female second in the plot, I am personally satisfied with it on the whole. There is also a small concern: at the end of the story, the male protagonist needs to make a very important choice, but this choice is not a game "option" for the player. That is to say, the ending is already set at the beginning. However, in such an open-ended and even a little "stream of consciousness" language, describe a "Is it all worth it?" "The reverse selection story. For players who don't have access to the airwave, this is a very likely ending that will cause controversy and even insults.
At the end of the article, regarding the "green box" of the game title, I have a little shallow speculation:
"Great-grandfather Biao... Biao Zhi is knowledgeable and knowledgeable, contacts Chaoyi, is a family heirloom, and is familiar with the old things of the left and the green box of the silk. The world calls it 'Wang's Green Box Science'. This is an allusion to the "Transmission of the Green Box", which is alluded to the "Biography of Wang Huai in the Book of Song".
The "green box" here refers to Wang Huai's ancestors who entered the dynasty as officials in successive dynasties, were knowledgeable and knowledgeable, and stored the historical events they remembered in a green box and passed them down from generation to generation. In addition to describing a person's genealogical origins, "Qingbox Transmission" also has the meaning of inheriting history. Naturally, the "green box" is a container for inheriting and protecting history. As for the correspondence between this large paragraph of text and the plot, who knows.
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