All the Delicate Duplicates

Few games leave me speechless, but that's exactly what happened when I finished All the Delicate Duplicates. Instead of jumping straight into my review, I sat there staring at the screen in disbelief for what felt like an eternity. Even now that I've organized my thoughts and know what I want to say, I'm still not sure any of it will make sense. What I do know is that this brief first-person adventure is going to stick with me for a long time to come.

Without giving too much away, All the Delicate Duplicates tells the story of a single father whose life changes after he inherits a collection of arcane objects from a mysterious relative. At first it just seems like a box of junk, but as John and his daughter, Charlotte, investigate the objects, they realize that there's something strange going on.

Spanning nearly two decades, we see the impact this inheritance has on the family. We're able to jump between different time periods in order to investigate the house and piece the clues together. We do this by digging through John's email, reading the text messages, opening up diaries and searching every room in the house. You'll revisit the different periods in John's life multiple times, with each encounter adding a new layer of complexity to the narrative.

Although this looks and feels like the setup to a horror game, the tone in All the Delicate Duplicates isn't scary. In fact, this hour-long adventure plays out more like an interactive Twilight Zone episode, full of talk about science and theories. The game doesn't hold your hand or over-explain what's going on, instead hoping the player will be invested enough to read everything and thoroughly explore each timeline. The result is a mind-bending story told in a loose and non-linear way.

In case you haven't noticed, I'm talking around what really happens in All the Delicate Duplicates. I went in knowing almost nothing about the game, and I feel that's probably the best way to go. There's a lot to unpack here, but it's better you put the pieces together on your own. What I will say is that I like the thick atmosphere and how the story unravels with each jump in time. It constantly found new ways to surprise me, giving me a science fiction story I didn't want to put down.

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My only real complaint with the game is that some of the writing is hard to read. It wasn't an issue when reading John's emails or text messages, but some of the writing scrawled out on the walls made my eyes hurt. This is a common problem with this style of game, but many first-person adventures will have an option to convert the hand-written text to an easier to read font. There's nothing like that here, so you'll sometimes need to put up with deciphering writing that looks like chicken scratches.

Although the adventure is short, I do like that All the Delicate Duplicates gives us a couple extra modes to toy around with. One of these has you wandering through an otherworldly landscape where you can you combine items to unearth new information. There's also a mode that lets you read up on all of the objects and locations found in the game, though this is better viewed on a tablet. Both of these modes help add to the game's intrigue and made me want to play through the story all over again.

In an era when many first-person adventure games are meant to be terrifying, I like that All the Delicate Duplicates is more about blowing your mind with science than jump scares. This is incredibly effective storytelling that will stick with you long after the credits roll, and may end up being one of my favorite gaming experiences of the year. All the Delicate Duplicates is a must-play.

(Editor's Note: All the Delicate Duplicates is developed by Mez Breeze and Andy Campbell, published by One to One Development Trust - Dreaming Methods.)