The bullet of human arrogance hits the center of the eyebrow

"We died at the age of 40 from a bullet that we shot into our hearts when we were 20 years old. —Albert Camus, Camus's Notes

There are many games that tell heartwarming stories about the post-apocalyptic world, but there are not many that give me the same thoughts and emotions as Inside. A casual adventure game I played, Foundling, a year later, also gave me such an impression.

I've seen some authors say that "The Outcast" made by developer Demagag Studio is Eastern European, but that's not necessarily the case. The indie game developers at Demagog Studio are producers from Serbia in the Balkans, geographically supposed to be southern Europe. Here, the war-weathered producers who grew up clearly have a unique perspective and understanding of the end times.

As a result, from the previous Golf: Wasteland to The Outcast (both share a common worldview), cyber-inspired neon, solemn monumental towers, and ubiquitous dark humor fill the game itself. However, the cruelty of war is the surface, but the core of the concrete is the end of the world in the eyes of children - night blind and pure. As producer Simic said: The end of the world may not be so terrible in the eyes of a child, but you still have to find a way to survive the danger and savagery, and win the "game" in the end.

This innocence pervades every aspect of "The Abandoned Son". On the one hand, it is a barren and dilapidated city, a ruined wall, and a garbage factory, on the other hand, it is a delicate 2D hand-painted style that satisfies the aesthetics of children, the background sounds such as cicadas and birds, and the nostalgia of those radio stations that accompany adults when they grow up as children**, in short, even if it is a post-apocalyptic wasteland, players can look at this incompatible apocalypse like a child.

is matched by the plot and narrative of "The Abandoned Son". In the game, Tesla does take people away from Earth to explore the vastness of Mars - but those are the privileges of the powerful. However, the people who cling to their homeland on earth did not feel sorry for themselves, and the "outcasts" chose to save themselves after nature reoccupied their homeland. As an abandoned child, the protagonist is raised among wolves and successfully protects his home.

As a side-scrolling adventure game, as well as a big philosophy from the perspective of a child, "Foundling" is very similar to the "masterpiece" "inside" in terms of gameplay and concept, which can be seen from Steam's intelligent push. However, "Outcast" does have its rather immature place in 2D jumping parkour gameplay. While it was launched on Steam on January 19 with 84 "very positive", the last 30 days (more people started it during the Chinese New Year) have only received 65 "mixed" reviews.

The problem is obviously big, no wonder some people say that "planning should kowtow to art". It's hard to say whether the game planning is really stupid or just to increase the activity of the game time, and set up a lot of "meet kills" in the game. Even if you're familiar with all the game mechanics, it's easy to get caught up in a variety of puzzle-solving levels.

Tell me something that outrages me. Because "Abandoned Son" requires the player's rippling interaction, but in the process of my "Tarzan of the Apes" swinging, I died because of the "broken touch" of the game itself. The extreme discomfort for players due to model determination issues is obviously not good for a game that relies heavily on platforming.

In addition, the need to kill at first sight is that even if the player reacts and operates accordingly, they will encounter a trap kill due to the push, pull, pan and rise and fall of the camera and map switching. Is there any way to solve it? Yes, the backplane!

In addition, the story of the game's save points being too long (and not being able to save manually), the story of collecting items not being saved in time, and abruptly stopping, all make it difficult for me not to blame "The Foundling".

In particular, the background of "Martians" and the aborigines of the earth falling in love and killing each other, and finally evolved into a drama of "he runs and chases him, and it is difficult to fly", wasting such a macro narrative background, which is quite difficult for me, and I may only look forward to the production team continuing to launch new works to complete the next world view.

Still, I was impressed by the BGM of the post-apocalyptic strings and electronica, the detailed changes in the sound effects of the left and right channels (such as the changes in the sound effects of taking off the helmet and entering the water), and the cyberpunk style in many places made me linger. At the end of the story, after experiencing the encirclement and suppression of the Martians, the protagonist child is alone in a monologue with a torch of hope for humanity. Those arrogant people betrayed their relatives and ended up reaping the consequences.

The end of the world in the eyes of a child is different, it can be very small, it can be big, it can be terrifying, it can be beautiful. In the game, we are like children, saying to the adults, you wasted your chance to save the planet, now it's our turn! The producer said.

Overall, "Outcast" is a very artistic work, and those superficial tastes of the apocalyptic world will indeed make players who love this type of player think a lot.

Finally, I would like to end with a book review by Shi Tiesheng in ** "Me and the Temple of Earth": One of the things I like very much is that a person who was thirteen or fourteen years old in the summer picked up a real gun on the road. Because he was young and ignorant, he was not afraid of heaven and earth, and he pulled the trigger. No one died, and no one was injured. He thought he had fired an empty gun. Later, when he was thirty years old or older, he was walking on the road and heard a faint wind behind him. He stopped, turned around, and the bullet hit the center of the eyebrow.