Subsurface Circular - Come Ride the Subway with a Robot Detective

SUBSURFACE CIRCULAR

I bought Subsurface Circular based on the designer credits alone. Mike Bithell and company designed one of the best narrative platformers, Thomas Was Alone, that I have ever played and I had no doubt that whatever this game was about it would be good. And so I embarked into a text adventure.

I am not much of a text adventure guy, something about the format never quite holds my attention. When I was younger I enjoyed the hardcopy format found in the "choose your own adventure" books but when it came to playing on a PC it just felt flat for me. Which is a shame because I am aware of the increased options that doing this sort of story on a computer allows, capabilities far beyond what you could do in a paper book. But they just never held my interest for long enough.

So Subsurface Circular had a uphill climb for me right at the start. Now maybe I am a little shallow but the graphical presentation this game has very quickly made me forget I was playing a text adventure. While a simple setting, the graphic and animation design are of a much higher quality than I expected. Great sound, both ambient and story wise is also immersive and appreciated.

Taking on the roll of a detective robot (called Teks in the game world) and investigating strange disappearances of other robots. You are riding the underground subway and robots come and go between the stops, each with their own jobs and personalities. You ask questions, learn information and make deductions all in a smooth dialogue system. Some things seems important, others trivial. You keep digging until you find what you are looking for or the robot moves on, leaving at their appointed stop.

The over arcing plot is well done and provides enough twists and turns that it feels like a right proper detective story. For every character being a robot it goes to some surprisingly human places. It's nicely paced in that there is no time limit, progression happens as it needs to for the plot, and with no failure states you aren't forced to repeat conversations. With a little over 2 hours to play through Subsurface Circular feels more like a confined space film than a game in some ways.

For a fiver and a couple of hours I definitely recommend this new Bithell game to anyone who likes a good story or a bite sized text adventure.