{"id":40034,"date":"2018-08-13T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-08-13T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/reviews\/switch-eshop\/2064_read_only_memories_integral"},"modified":"2018-08-13T15:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-08-13T15:00:00","slug":"review-2064-read-only-memories-integral-switch-eshop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2018\/08\/13\/review-2064-read-only-memories-integral-switch-eshop\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: 2064: Read Only Memories INTEGRAL (Switch eShop)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><a href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/reviews\/switch-eshop\/2064_read_only_memories_integral\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/reviews\/switch-eshop\/2064_read_only_memories_integral\/small.jpg\" class=\"media_thumbnail\"><\/a><\/div>\n<div id=\"\">\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"2064: Read Only Memories INTEGRAL Review - Screenshot 1 of 5\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/91688\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/91688\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"2064: Read Only Memories INTEGRAL Review - Screenshot 1 of 5\" \/><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>Author Bruce Stirling one defined cyberpunk as being a combination of &#8220;low-life and high-tech&#8221;. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/switch-eshop\/2064_read_only_memories_integral\"><strong>2064: Read Only Memories INTEGRAL<\/strong><\/a> certainly earns that description, but it also shoots for something a little loftier and more idealistic. This retrofuturistic point-and-click adventure game tackles weighty (and familiar) themes like what it means to be human and social inequality, but it does so with a great deal of warmth, humour, and positive progressive energy.<\/p>\n<p>The Neo-San Francisco of MidBoss&#8217;s cyberpunk adventure is one marked by the usual disparity between rich and poor, with mega-corporations commandeering law enforcement and health care.\u00a0This is a future where humans have begun to augment themselves, leading to emerging social rifts between those who choose to modify their appearance, those who don&#8217;t, and those who actively oppose the practice as being impure.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"2064: Read Only Memories INTEGRAL Review - Screenshot 2 of 5\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/91680\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/91680\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"2064: Read Only Memories INTEGRAL Review - Screenshot 2 of 5\" \/><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>Alongside all of this civil upheaval, technology has reached a point where advanced robot assistants &#8211; or ROMs &#8211; are filling the role of low wage labourers. Humanity justifies this exploitation due to the fact that these robots aren&#8217;t truly sentient &#8211; yet.<\/p>\n<p>Into this powder keg situation, and into your freelance hack&#8217;s care, drops Turing, a cute prototype ROM that claims to be the world&#8217;s first sapient machine. Turing&#8217;s genius creator has been kidnapped, and it falls to you and your digital sidekick to ascertain why.\u00a0This is the cue for a classic adventure experience that draws from the point-and-click games of old. The developers openly reference the likes of <strong>Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers<\/strong> and <strong>Snatcher<\/strong>, but it will be familiar to any digital adventurers old enough to remember the late &#8217;80s and early &#8217;90s.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s essentially a series of static scenes (viewed through a retro-tastic letterbox), many of which you&#8217;ll revisit several times over, sifting for clues and engaging in branching conversations.\u00a0Indeed, we should get the warning out right now that there&#8217;s an awful lot of dialogue in 2064: Read Only Memories INTEGRAL. For the most part, it streamlines and minimises the famously arcane point-and-click puzzles associated with the genre in favour of a focus on narrative.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"2064: Read Only Memories INTEGRAL Review - Screenshot 3 of 5\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/91684\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/91684\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"2064: Read Only Memories INTEGRAL Review - Screenshot 3 of 5\" \/><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>You won&#8217;t find yourself stumped on elaborate fetch quests or tortuous item combination sequences here, nor will you be required to click on everything in a bid to progress the plot. Generally speaking, your progress through the game is logical and fairly seamless. This might be seen as a weakness by grizzled adventure fans, but is perfectly in keeping with the game&#8217;s inclusive tone.<\/p>\n<p>There are various mini-game sections throughout the adventure, but these are highly simplistic and relatively brief. They certainly wouldn&#8217;t stand up to playing an extended part of proceedings, but in this form, they act as effective palate cleansers.<\/p>\n<p>The meat of the experience here is undoubtedly the story, though. Fortunately, the writing and characterisations in 2064: Read Only Memories INTEGRAL are more than up to the task.\u00a0Your companion, Turing, is a constant delight to spend time with &#8211; at once perilously vulnerable and plausibly capable. Their naivety and little idiosyncrasies (such as a fondness for botany) make them believably human &#8211; something that&#8217;s emphasised by an expressive emoji of a face.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"2064: Read Only Memories INTEGRAL Review - Screenshot 4 of 5\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/91679\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/91679\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"2064: Read Only Memories INTEGRAL Review - Screenshot 4 of 5\" \/><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>The rest of the cast understandably gets less attention, but is still admirably fleshed out and atypically diverse in terms of race, gender identity and sexual orientation. The game&#8217;s world is rife with tension and discrimination, but the fact that the sources of this friction appear to have moved on from these basic areas feels oddly uplifting.<\/p>\n<p>The entire cast is completely voice acted, and the performances are generally of a pretty high standard. This is accompanied by an evocative synth soundtrack, which nails that &#8216;retrofuturistic&#8217; vibe nicely.\u00a0Your interaction with the world arguably takes this approach a little too literally, though. Having to use the left Joy-Con stick to physically flick across all of the onscreen elements seems a little clunky, and it&#8217;s a shame there&#8217;s no direct touchscreen option available for handheld mode. In similar fashion, the four-strong interaction system of &#8216;Look&#8217;, &#8216;Touch&#8217;, &#8216;Speak&#8217; and &#8216;Use item with&#8217; seems a little crude and clunkily implemented; some kind of hold-and-release selection wheel, or maybe a direct mapping to the fascia buttons, would have been preferable.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"2064: Read Only Memories INTEGRAL Review - Screenshot 5 of 5\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/91682\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/91682\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"2064: Read Only Memories INTEGRAL Review - Screenshot 5 of 5\" \/><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>Aside from these interaction issues, though, and a necessary warning over the game&#8217;s heavy focus on story over gameplay, 2064: Read Only Memories INTEGRAL is an easy recommendation to make for anyone after a new cyberpunk adventure. Or even a fairly old one.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"conclusion\">\n<h2 class=\"heading\">Conclusion<\/h2>\n<p>2064: Read Only Memories INTEGRAL takes the classic point-and-click genre of old, strips out many of the annoyingly exacting puzzle systems, and injects a refreshingly positive and progressive outlook. A cast of memorable characters and some spot-on retro presentation should seal the deal for fans of a good story and snappy dialogue.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Author Bruce Stirling one defined cyberpunk as being a combination of &#8220;low-life and high-tech&#8221;. 2064: Read Only Memories INTEGRAL certainly earns that description, but it also shoots for something a little loftier and more idealistic. This retrofuturistic point-and-click adventure game tackles weighty (and familiar) themes like what it means to be human and social inequality, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nintendo-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40034\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}