Free Games I Like: Air Pressure
Posted on 18th May 2010 at 12:39 by Joe Martin with 29 comments
There are very few games which explicitly try to tackle the topic of romance because, as has been proved again and again by the games industry, it’s far easier to destroy something than it is to create something. It’s far easier to make a game about blowing up a car than building a marriage.
Air Pressure however has struck upon the idea of combining the two; it’s a game about destroying a relationship.
So, as the game starts, you are cast as a young man who is thinking about leaving his girlfriend of many years and, as the game unfolds through a simple multiple choice structure that’s borrowed from Japanese visual novels, you decide how you want the romance to end. Nice and amicably? Guiltily? You can even push it as far as attempted suicide, if you want.
What helps make Air Pressure great though, other than the remarkable and subtext-heavy writing, is the honesty and simplicity of it all. You’re often given simple choices about what you want to do or say, but as in real life your choices aren’t the only things that matter and your partner will often react in a way you didn’t expect. In most games your choices are the only ones that matter, but not here.
On top of that, Air Pressure is a game where nearly everyone should be able to sympathise with one or both of the main characters, because everyone has either been rejected or dumped someone else. The writing uses that sympathy to mess with you too, putting you in dilemmas where the only reasonable answers don’t fit within the options you are given. Questions like ‘How much should rely on your loved ones?’ don’t really have answers that fit on a single line, so Air Pressure’s options feel just as uncomfortable as the in-game situation.
Be warned though, Air Pressure is not a happy game most of the time. It delves quickly and, if we’re looking at it cynically, a bit melodramatically, into a complex and nasty break-up. It’s not going to be to everyone’s taste – as illustrated by Harry’s reaction to it, for example. I’m not going to make apologies for that though, because this is still a remarkably clever and interesting game.
Air Pressure however has struck upon the idea of combining the two; it’s a game about destroying a relationship.
So, as the game starts, you are cast as a young man who is thinking about leaving his girlfriend of many years and, as the game unfolds through a simple multiple choice structure that’s borrowed from Japanese visual novels, you decide how you want the romance to end. Nice and amicably? Guiltily? You can even push it as far as attempted suicide, if you want.
What helps make Air Pressure great though, other than the remarkable and subtext-heavy writing, is the honesty and simplicity of it all. You’re often given simple choices about what you want to do or say, but as in real life your choices aren’t the only things that matter and your partner will often react in a way you didn’t expect. In most games your choices are the only ones that matter, but not here.
On top of that, Air Pressure is a game where nearly everyone should be able to sympathise with one or both of the main characters, because everyone has either been rejected or dumped someone else. The writing uses that sympathy to mess with you too, putting you in dilemmas where the only reasonable answers don’t fit within the options you are given. Questions like ‘How much should rely on your loved ones?’ don’t really have answers that fit on a single line, so Air Pressure’s options feel just as uncomfortable as the in-game situation.
Be warned though, Air Pressure is not a happy game most of the time. It delves quickly and, if we’re looking at it cynically, a bit melodramatically, into a complex and nasty break-up. It’s not going to be to everyone’s taste – as illustrated by Harry’s reaction to it, for example. I’m not going to make apologies for that though, because this is still a remarkably clever and interesting game.
29 Comments
Discuss in the forums ReplyBeat me to it, was thinking the same thing.
http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/5579/harryut0.gif
Duh.
i need to grow some balls -.-
He didn't really understand it I don't think. Instead he got angry and started ranting about how artwank it was.
tell him hes an idiot
Now to go and do it for real maybe :O
EDIT: Not sure what Joe was doing that I was not, but most of the time I played it, things turned out okay. Even the one time I got this dude to try to kill himself he felt better for the experience.
About the game, just use the "turn around and leave" or "stick the middle finger", what I've done in real life is pretty hard and no game can simulate that.
It's rubbish.
Woke up in a hospital after 5 whole minutes of play, no idea how I got there, no explanation, but apparently that's the end. Waste of time.
Literally, or in-game? :D
SouperAndy
I went on quite the rant about this game. It really, really bugs me that you can't attempt to salvage things with this girl. That really kills my sympathy for the guy.
http://workofart.org/?p=37
Firstly, I don't think it's art per se, merely arty - or with artistic pretension.
Secondly, complaining that you can't save the relationship here is like getting pissed off with Half-Life because you can't join up with the Combine...
I don't know... I would've gladly done either of the above by the time I'd reached the end.
I would have done that in the goddamned swimming mission.
Kinda cool concept, but to limited for me to really recommend, it kept me amused for a while but only cause I thought there would be more to it. If there were double the endings and more branching out, it would be pretty cool.
Thanks guys, I'm out of hospital now. Apparently I went on a rampage after realising how crap this game was and bashed my head a few times.
give me back that 5 minutes damn you joe =]
Sometimes I think everything is like this.
Sort of like an internet argument - lots of ways to spark off one, lots of way to argue through one, but only one ending : special olympics competitor.