If You don’t know what Submachine is…


… You can surely find out from this article. Written by Greg J. Smith, full version can be found here.

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Leaving the biggest imprint on me are the works of Polish graphic novelist Mateusz Skutnik. Skutnik is the author of the Submachine series of games, each of which finds you escaping from an elaborate, explorable puzzle box. Captivity is a familiar theme in this genre of games, known as escape the room games in the point-and-click world. This gameplay style evolved from Robyn and Rand Miller’s 1993 classic Myst, which shaped the game industry as much as SimCity and Doom.

The Submachine games could all be described as immersive labyrinths. In each of these first-person sleuthers, the player must navigate through a series of abandoned research facilities and ruins in hopes of finding a means to freedom. Stranded without instructions, maps or context, the story forms via notes and transmissions picked up along the way. The Submachines demand an eye for pattern recognition, and the intricacy of some of the puzzles can be quite maddening. Adding to the ambiance is an eerie score and impressive sound design. There are a number of recurring motifs including typewriters, radios and pipelines that visually unite the games. Be warned, these puzzle boxes are habit-forming.