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Should You Get...
Fibrillation
AKA, Tribulation. Have you ever had a game that really intrigued you, that you went into
with high expectations, ready to enjoy it and have all kinds of good things to say about
it, only to have the game get in the way of itself- over and over again? That's Fibrillation.
Fibrillation is one of those games rather like Dear Esther, The Stanley Parable, or
Proteus: it's more about exploring the world, enjoying the experience, and telling a story
than anything else, so don't expect any combat or puzzle-solving. At most, you flee from
the Death Slug Spirit at a few points and try to find your way out of each area. That
may not be for everyone, but I enjoy it, and I'm always interested to see how well game's
like that can pull it off. Alas, Fibrillation doesn't.
I had hoped that the game's problems had been fixed by the update that was released a while
back. I'm happy to say that the atrocious voice-over has been removed, and I couldn't
be happier. It was pretty bad and didn't jive with the otherwise subtle presentation of
the story.
The game opens with your character standing in a white void with naught but grain filter
and a pile of rubble to keep you company. As you walk forward, a tower rises out of
the rubble, with a dark entrance inviting you in. At this point you'll notice a couple
of things: The sound of your breathing and your heartbeat. They will be with you the
entire game. Honestly, I find I tuned it out after a while and it didn't bother me much.
But for some people, repetitive noises like that would drive them crazy.
On that note, listen to this sound:
Imagine forty minutes of that noise, following you throughout the game. Yeah. Apparently,
an audio glitch causes that sound effect to loop endlessly. I thought the update had fixed
it, but on my third playthrough, it came back. It's a small technical issue that completely
ruins the game. Having to deal with that sapped the enthusiasm I initially felt.
I was ready for a horror adventure through strange, abstract dreamscapes! Some of the
environments can be creepy and strange; I like them actually. I cared about what was
going on, I wanted to know how the story ended! There were moments I genuinely found moody
orexciting.
For instance, there is one part where, after you ascend a flight of metal stairs, the room
shakes and you can hear footsteps coming up the stairs after you. I didn't know if I was
in danger, I didn't know what was going on- all I knew was that I didn't want whatever
was making those footsteps to catch me.
And then there's the stairway endlessly stretching downward, or the cubic maze, the long falls
into nothingness... The game does some neat stuff that would otherwise be worth playing
it through just once to see.
But that one time would be it. Unlike Dear Esther or The Stanley Parable, there's really
nothing about the environment, the story, or the presentation to make you want to revisit
this world, nor any randomized elements, branching paths, gorgeous sights or thrilling secrets
to reward you for playing again. It's just that one time, and after that, the sense that
you are "on rails" is pretty unavoidable. Regarding the story it tells and the world
it builds, Fibrillation just isn't very memorable. It makes you believe it's going to be philosophical,
thought-provoking, or emotional in some deep way, which is what games in this genre typically
aim for, but it never delivers. While it has some interesting moments, the experience it's
creating is rather unmemorable and disappointing.
Nonetheless, I really wanted to like this game, and I did my best to give it a chance.
On my second playthrough, the audio glitch was absent and so I was able to stomach the
journey. I wanted to see the story through.
And then I got to the last maze.
This area... It commits one of the most grievious crimes of game design I've ever seen. The
game points you to a stairwell in the maze overseeing the maze walls. Between the walls
you can see walkways making a path over the maze to the exit. It was obvious to me that
I needed to jump the gaps and make my why there. Except that with this game's mechanics,
jumping is the LAST thing you could hope to pull off with any accuracy.
Besides that, each time you fall off, you have to trek back to the beginning and try
again- and again. And again. My patience for this game was utterly exhausted at this point.
But it turns out, you AREN'T supposed to jump the gaps. Despite walkways between them, which
could not be accessed any other way, you aren't supposed to jump down to them from the top
of the stairs. You are supposed to turn around and go through the door up on the platform.
In a game where every door you've come to before couldn't be entered.
So on top of being glitchy and unmemorable, the game is misleading. It tells you one thing
the whole game long and then changes the rules at the very end while giving you the most
mind-numbing red herring to chase in the exact opposite direction.
Intentional or not, this is not good game design. It can never be said enough: games
are about experiences, about creating a little world for the player to explore and discover.
The designer is supposed to guide them into and through that world, teach them how to
interact with it and lay it out in a way that draws them forward and engages them, whether
it's the most stat-heavy RPG or bare-bones exploration game like this.
Fibrillation intrigued me enough to give it my money and my time and then ruined the experience
by being broken and confusing. I expected a horror adventure- and I had an adventure
into horror of altogether the wrong kind.