Aloners - Demo - Review

“One day, the last man on Earth came home to find a girl sleeping on his bed.”

Release Date: TBA
Rating: Mature / Teen
(explicit content can be switched off at start of game)

"Story:

The Dust Bowl: ground zero for the event that wiped civilization from the face of the earth. Plagued by toxic gas clouds and once-human monsters, only one man survives to call this wasteland his home.

Trash takes his name from his lifeblood, scavenging and restoring what he can from the rubble in order to live another day. He lives alone in his self-made shack, surrounded by the machinery he loves and hidden from the world that wants him dead...

Until the day he finds you, a young woman somehow untouched by the harsh reality of the Dust Bowl.

As he teaches you how to take care of yourself in this new and brutal world, you might just end up teaching him something in return."

"Info:
Aloners will be a free, highly interactive visual novel with a female protagonist and one supporting male character. The emphasis will be on exploration of the post-apocalyptic setting and on building a relationship with a character who remembers what you’ve said and done in the past, and reacts accordingly.

There will be no stat-raising, and protagonist auto-dialogue will be kept to an absolute minimum. The aim is to immerse the player in the world and let them roleplay the main character their way."

Credits:
Character art by PeriwinkleImp
Background art from Morgue File
Music by Kevin MacLeod

Man, I've been dying to play this visual novel since I came across it back in February-ish on the Lemma Soft Forums. Finally I got a chance to get my hands on the demo and it did not disappoint. The main reason why I kept such a close eye on this particular game is because of this: “The emphasis will be on exploration of the post-apocalyptic setting and on building a relationship with a character who remembers what you’ve said and done in the past, and reacts accordingly.” That sentence gave me the impression that Trash – the only guy of the story would be far more realistic than anything I've come across before. I was also under the impression that there would only be one obtainable guy so that you could explore his background and character in a lot more depth than would be possible if there were several guys. I also haven't been able to play a game of this setting type yet.

The demo is pretty short and lacks a GUI that isn't the basic for the Ren'py engine. I was a little disappointed by that but I have read on Sonnet's tumblr the following: “I am currently looking for someone to work on customising the GUI so, in that respect, this demo does not reflect the final game.” I can't wait! I really hope she finds someone that does an amazing job but also keeps in theme with the actual game itself.

I've played through 'Rei' which was also created by Sonnet but while playing through Aloners I noticed how great of a writer she is. The way she words everything was truly something to admire. To me, it was as thought she put a lot of time and thought into her dialogue. She really does posses a high standard of writing!

Trash... As I said, he's the only guy in the game which might discourage some people from this title. I know I really like to have my options open to me but again, I wasn't disappointed. He can be a bit of a hard-arse on our MC but with good reason – At the end of the day, this is a post-apocalyptic story and the dangers are very real. His appearance is also quite unique. I don't believe I've come across a guy with dreadlocks to be honest. There seems to be every type of guy around, with all sorts of hair so I'm not sure why no one has thought of it before. I guess it might be a little weird for him to have anything but dreadlocks if you think about it. Trash can be bold as well as pushy in some places. He also has the cutest face when he blushes! I'm really looking forward to being able to see more sides of him in the future!

Because Sonnet is trying to create a game where you can play as the protagonist you want to be the heroine is faceless and you get to choose her name. Unlike most games where you get to pick a name, this doesn't happen before the story actually begins, it happens during it! I thought the scene where this happens was quite endearing as well as a little funny! Again, because the MC is going to act the way you want her to, every time there is an opportunity to pick a response, those options are quite varied. I really liked this because it gives you the freedom to really play the way you want as oppose to picking the correct answer to end with the desired guy.

The story for this novel was interesting from what I saw. I can't say I gave it to much thought of what I was expecting it to be like and I don't usually like to give much away when it comes to demo games. So what I will say is that I'm really interested in learning more about how the world ended up the way it is and how the MC found herself where she did!

As for the art, I really liked the way Trash was drawn. Even in the demo you get to see a lot of different facial expressions and posses. I guess that's another advantage of only having one guy in a story – you really do get to spend more time on him. When it comes to the background art though, I'm really not sure what to think about it. It's not that I didn't like it – It certainly seems to fit the theme and maybe that's where I'm a little torn. As I said, I haven't played a game with this setting before so I’m use to seeing pretty colours and fancy buildings. At the very least, it appears that a lot of time has been put into the art!

I must admit that when a demo is released for a game I’m looking forward to playing I usually only play through it once so that it is still somewhat 'fresh' when the full version is available, but with Aloners I just couldn't help myself. I spent my time combining all the options and seeing where it let me. Overall, the replay value for the demo wasn't very high but I'm still under the impression that when the full version is released and I'm able to play through the later chapters that this will not be the case.

As of yet, I don't believe there is an ETA on when the full version will be released but I would suggest keeping an eye on Sonnet's tumblr if you're interested as that's where she seems to post most of her updates. There is also a topic for this title on Lemma Soft Forums if that's more your thing!

I can't help but post this from Sonnet's tumblr – Look at that adorable face!