Asemblance

I had no idea what to expect from Asemblance when I installed it on my Playstation 4 a few days ago. Still, having played thorough all that I currently can of the game, I’m admittedly a little confused. At Asemblance’s core, is a mystery that you’ll unravel by playing through a series of loops inspired heavily by 2014’s horror stand-out, P.T. As you progress through the game’s limited environments it becomes apparent that not everything is being presented to you up front, and it’ll take some digging to reveal the answers to what exactly is going on in the world of Asemblance. It’s not often that a game like this comes along and renders it’s player utterly confused, asking that they fumble around, meticulously inspecting every inch of a room until they’ve finally given in and admitted defeat and maybe thats for the best. Still though, there are few things as satisfying as being presented with a stoppage like this only to overcome it after twenty minutes of banging your head against the wall. For better or worse though, Asemblance evokes P.T. not only through the loops you’ll run, but from a design philosophy, and I loved every minute of it.

Asemblance starts on a confusing note (one that’ll carry throughout your time with the game.) After a cold open, you find yourself in a small facility. A computer terminal in front of you asks you to complete a questionnaire regarding your mood. Are you feeling: a) great, b) not good, c) confused, or d) angry and confused. After the question is answered, an A.I.’s voice comes over the intercom expressing its concern that you might not have the mental fortitude to complete what’s to come. It asks you to press a button on the same terminal prompting the chamber in the middle of the facility to activate, simulating a lush looking forest environment. Once you walk into the chamber, you’re transported to the forest for a little while before you’re prompted to hit the triangle button wherein you’re ripped (rather jarringly) out of the simulation and back into the facility. Here in lies the game’s core mechanic. You’ll be wandering through and exploring a limited amount of small environments, investigating minutia to unravel the mysteries pertaining to exactly where you are and why you’re there. Ostensibly you’re playing as a scientist reliving your own memories by way of a holo-chamber, but as you progress, determining what’s real becomes more of a chore. The drip-feed of information that’s presented to you is remarkably engaging and I didn’t want to stop playing the game before revealing every truth that I could about the game’s story.

Outside of exploring the simulated memories of Asemblance there is decidedly little in terms of game mechanics. As I mentioned earlier, hitting the triangle button will force you out of a simulation. You can interact with objects here and there, but most interestingly you can hold R2 to focus more closely on something. Doing this in the right spots will often result in the environment around you changing and giving you further room to investigate and reveal elements of the story. The zoom that occurs when you focus one something is rather tight as well, giving the game an opportunity to change the environment around you. It’s a nice trick and results in some startling moments in the game.

For this reason, Asemblance is best played in the dark. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s a horror game, but it is definitely atmospheric and at times, exceptionally creepy. A few moments spring to mind that made me jump, made less embarrassing by the fact that I was playing this game alone and late at night. It has a way of making areas feel safe and familiar, only to dash these comforts, replacing them with a sense of dread and confusion. It does this through some really well designed and nice looking environments and the use of some remarkable lighting and sound design. I played Asemblance on the Playstation 4, and the game is capable of looking gorgeous in spots, though in the more taxing locations it can get a bit framey. On top of this, the Asemblance isn’t always a looker. Character models look pretty bad and there are some really muddy textures in the game. Still though, for a small team, the game delivers some impressive environmental visuals.

Unfortunately the game has also been pretty buggy in my experience. My first play-through didn’t elicit any game stopping bugs, but when trying to show Asemblance to my roommate, we were simply unable to progress at a certain pivotal moment in the game. Given its aim to deliver an askew, psychologically thrilling gameplay experience, I thought that this was being done on purpose and we continued to look around for about thirty minutes before deciding to restart the game, fixing everything. It was a bit of a let down considering I had thought the game was changing with each play-through, adding to the mystery. Instead the games mood in tandem with the chance of bugs just made it harder to trust. This wasn’t enough to ruin the experience, but it was rather frustrating.

Despite its faults I still really enjoyed my time with Asemblance. Like I said, there’s really not a lot like it. The game intentionally obfuscates its narrative through obtuse puzzles that, if you’re like me, will gnaw at you until you figure them out. To this point I have only achieved the third of four possible endings, and every time I turn on my Playstation I want to jump back into Asemblance to noodle around the different rooms focusing on new things at different times to try and change something. It’s a sense of confusion I really haven’t felt since P.T. a few years ago. While it can be said that the puzzles are perhaps too impenetrable, there’s something novel about a game that encourages a community to work together, piecing together bits of their own experiences to solve a mystery - which is exactly what’s happened with Asemblance. Nilo's (The game’s developer) website claims that Asemblance is a teaser for a larger series aiming to deliver interactive experiences reminiscent of The Twilight Zone and Black Mirror and if it’s at all indicative of what we can expect from the team, I am one hundred per cent in.