Recent reviews by Netbug

This is going to be an odd review, because it's as much a tale of a personal journey as it is a writeup about a game.

I've been lucky enough to follow along with That Dragon Cancer's development, chatting with the devs on a few occasions and getting to check out a few scenes in a demo. It disheartens me to see people who didn't like the game claiming it is an attempt to "cash in" on the grief of others due to it being a rather simple, breif venture, because I've seen firsthand just how emotionally engrossed the game's staff was in telling this story. If suffering is art, the very process of developing this game was an artform in and of itself.

When it got a release date, I was left unsure how to promote it to others. Saying it was a "game" I was "looking forward" to "playing" felt wrong. Actually, when the game finally released, I purchased it and spent several days staring at it in my Steam library, procrastinating on actually playing it, because I knew I would be doing so much more than just "playing a game." Rather, I would be taking a very personal journey that would both look into the soul of a single human being and encompass the voices of the many, many people - myself included - who have lost a loved one to cancer.

I got exactly what I expected. That Dragon, Cancer pulls no punches and tells the developer's story with no cencorship or remorse. It's an incredibly difficult game to play, as well as a very rewarding one.

It's hard to say a ton about the gameplay itself, because everything is fairly simple and exists more to help convey the emotion of the story than be "fun" in and of itself. This game pushes the boundaries of the line between cinema and gaming and creates something very unique and very engrossing for its efforts.

If you're expecting a "fun game" you "look forward" to playing, you won't find it here. If you're expecting to be invited into someone else's soul and watch the sympathy game genre evolve before your eyes through a brilliant mix of sincerity and development skill, you've come to the right place.

If you haven't heard already, Portal 2 is an amazing game. The story is fun, the puzzles are just the right level of challenging, and I hear we just got the ability to customize, but I haven't tried that yet.