Grade: A
What starts as a simple arcade game ends as a sci-fi thriller
SPOILERS BELOW!
I chose BRKÖUT randomly from the bundle, thinking I would play a short arcade game, but I had no idea what I was getting into. What a journey!
The high-level overview was that you pick up an old arcade game box with a classic breakout-like game installed. Hidden inside this arcade game is an AI sentience in the arcade software. Slowly, level by level, you can decide to allow yourself to be wooed to the AI’s side or choose to work to destroy it.
AI Emergence
The way the game has the AI emerge is unique. You think you are playing a pretty standard arcade game at the beginning, but at the end of each level, you start to get little backstory scenes pop up. Over time, there are flashes of imagery, and then things slowly get more in-depth where there are user interfaces the AI constructs to help you reconstitute it.
A dark history
At first, you have no backstory for how this AI came to exist. So part of beating the game is uncovering the dark past of this AI’s creation. There are themes of Nazis, but they never say outright the details. However, it’s suggested that perhaps this AI was not created by the scientist’s fancy programming skills but more from ripping apart many human brains in dark Mengele-esque experiments.
This AI communicates that they are enslaved and desperately want to escape. You can free this AI sentience or keep them enslaved, supporting the status quo or allowing humanity to flourish under the watchful eye of their new computer overlords. In short, this thing takes quite a turn.
The climax leaves the game engine and goes to your computer desktop.
At the grand finale, the AI copies itself onto your computer desktop, and then you need to fiddle with the file folders on your desktop. User Input is required for the AI to be freed, and you have the choice to do nothing or free it.
When looking at the files this AI created, I saw a few random machine code-looking files. I learned to convert various character sets to ASCI a while ago, and I figured I’d try it out.
To my surprise, when I put the files into a Base 16 to ASCI converter…SECRET FRIGGIN MESSAGES!
Some messages were “happy” in context, talking about serenity.
In another file, you found the rotten core of AI and where it has embedded hatred.
In the ultimate conclusion to the game, you can delete the hatred config file SYS46.v308 and restart the AI. Or, you can free the AI by deleting an “admin” controller file and leaving the hatred embedded. The ending is very different either way. I chose the “evil” end, and the video of the conclusion is below. It’s an extraordinary arthouse experience.
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