“One in A Million, That is You”

I had been meaning to replay Device 6 for a long time, but I never had the time. Of course, when I got the idea to write an article about it I suddenly had an excuse, which was great news for me. Device 6 is a game by Simogo, exclusively for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad, and it is my very favorite game ever. It’s tragically underappreciated though, I’ve never met anyone else who’s actually heard of it, so I am of course expecting you all to go download it immediately after this. It’s four dollars of on the app store, a good deal, I promise. You guys I love this game so much. I’ve played through it at least three times on my phone, so I wanted to test out the quality of the game on an iPad. Luckily, one of my roommates has one and let me borrow it. She said I can buy her food in exchange for the four dollars, you know, college. So, having acquired an iPad, I set out to replay Device 6.

I realized quickly that though you can play the game on a phone the experience really is better on a tablet. This is because the whole game is text based. It’s not always stationary text, and it never gets boring, but there is a lot of reading. Honestly the format of the game is pretty hard to explain, but it’s what makes it so unique. The design is absolutely gorgeous. I really recommend that if you decide to play it you try to do so on a tablet, though a phone is fine if it’s what you’ve got.

The use of sound throughout the game really makes it feel finished. The visuals are beautiful and the story is excellent but the way they incorporate music and voice over puts you in the world, often, well most of the time, making you very uncomfortable. There’s even an original song by Jonathan Eng in the game which I’ve grown to like so much that I listen to it almost daily on Spotify (spoilers, the title of this article is a quote from the song). The audio is also very important to solving the puzzles within the game. Speaking of the puzzles within the game, it is a logic based, puzzle sort of game. But, it’s not the kind of thing where it’s like story, story, story, STOP, solve this entirely irrelevant thing to get to the next level. It is all part of the story.

The story is wonderful. Well…not in the sense that it’s happy. It’s dark. But it’s wonderful. It’s like a twisted dystopian Alice in Wonderland style thing. You are reading about a woman named Anna who has awoken in a room on a strange deserted island with no recollection of how she got there. As you read on you uncover more and more information about the sinister organization behind it all, HAT. In the end, Anna is presented with a choice. The question is, does Anna really have free will, does her choice make any difference, how much of this is all being orchestrated, and who is going to be next…

Certain things about the game make me so upset, for example, you just can never find out the whole story! And in the end SPOILER always happens! And wow are the puzzles hard. I love logic puzzles, I adore riddles, but damn! Have paper and pen/pencil with you while you play. Yes, paper and pencil, not just a notes app. And a calculator if you’re like me. It’s all totally worth it though, Device 6 is a stunning game. I obviously love it and don’t really have anything bad to say at the moment, but I’d be so interested in what other people think, so go play Device 6! Go! Do it now! You have no choice….