Welcome, all, to another indecipherable Octurbo. Today we look at Data East's Silent Debuggers: a puzzle game about quietly solving IT problems for a major software development company by scanning thousands of lines of code for erroneous integers and logic loops.
Just kidding, it's actually a claustrophobic sci-fi first-person shooter that somehow merges together Metroid Fusion and Snatcher. It's a weird one, as 16-bit proto-FPS games tend to be, and thus perfect for Octurbo.
Wouldn't Want People to Think We Were Robosexuals...
Welcome to Silent Debuggers! Man, that's a stylish logo. Like right out of a Gundam anime. Considering the rest of the game's presentation, that's not actually far off.We're experts in many ways, ladies. Especially battle. So this is just one of those silly made up titles for a badass specialized mercenary, like "Blade Runner", "Riskbreaker" or, well, "JUNKER"?Well... all right. I could always use more buddies. Especially incredibly anime ones.Okay, buddy? You're creeping me out. If you want this buddy relationship of ours to work, you need to be less weird.So Leon here is actually my debugger (sigh) partner, and we've been sent to the Ohme space station to solve problems in the way we debugger folk do. That's what most of the intro said, at least, and I didn't feel like capping it all.The space station is where the Metroid Fusion comparison comes in: the station is inexplicably elaborate with many floors and areas to explore, almost as if the architects knew it would become a floating space dungeon some day.Well, thank you game, I've always been fond of that moniker. I wonder if that's what it always says, or if there's actually an algorithm that rates how cool your Debugger codename is. Probably not, but a guy can dream, right?Leon, buddy, remember the talk we had? Also we'd better get used to this Aliens tunnel view; it's pretty much the whole game from here on out.Well who'd have thought it.I've always wondered why computers in sci-fi movies go into lockdown mode whenever there's danger. Wouldn't that be a good time to have full access to a ship's systems? Or have AIs advanced so far in the future that they're basically saying "fuck that, you humans deal with it. I'm going on va-cay-cay until this whole 'slavering alien monsters' sitch blows over."Naturally, our partner decides to stay in the computer room while we get relegated to Bug Hunt duty. Is "partner stays safe and barks orders at you through the walkie talkie" a concept page yet? Kendra Daniels, Adam Malkovich, Otis...I have no idea how these guns are different, so I just went with what I thought were the coolest names: Mega Beamer and Sonic Launcher. Disagree? Post in the comments below. Actually know the difference? Post in the comments below.So now we have full access to the game and can freely skulk around corridors quoting Aliens all day. Stay frosty, people.The game's actually quite elaborate, with many different weapons, sensors and other abilities that presumably get unlocked as we play. For instance, I have no other sensors as of yet and I have no clue what "jump" or "tool exc" commands do. I could check GameFAQs, but... eh. Research isn't traditionally a part of the LP process, from what I can tell.Here's the map. The central area is completely safe, for now at least (I assume those numbers are damage ratings), but that region of maze-like corridors to the south are where all the monsters are hiding. Oh boy.In case I hadn't figured it out, Leon pipes through my earpiece every 30 seconds about heading to the "outer block". For a debugger, he's not particularly silent.When you get close to where enemies are hiding, the little lights at the top corners of the screen start flashing green, then yellow and then red based on proximity. And I thought I was being facetious about the overt Aliens overtones.Here's one of the things now. You want to surprise them at the end of the corridors like this because then......they don't suddenly appear and scare the bejeezus out of you like this.And then smack you around like this. I'm not quite sure why it's glitching out here; I was too busy trying to vaporize it before it could rip out my arms to pay much attention to graphical flaws.A tense dozen or so torso mutants later and Leon pipes in to tell me he's managed the equally dangerous and exhausting task of finding the right Linux password. I suppose, technically speaking, he's doing more debugging than I am right now.Presented without context or comment.Mr Computer has been kind enough to let us explore the lower levels, or at least the immediate next level because this is a video game.Oh, and it's also inadvertently activated the self-destruct. We now have 100 minutes to complete the rest of the game. Yay?Great computering there buddy. Kudos.Well, as Leon's stated many times before, he loves tough jobs. Or maybe it was "rough trade". I'm not too sure about this translation.We get a brief glimpse of something in the security cam footage. It looks like yet another mutant with giant arms to me. I'm sure I'll have fun being jumped by him in a dark corridor later.So now the game continues, only with a big ol' time limit ticking down in the corridor. Getting killed simply knocks off five minutes and respawns you in the computer room, so obviously you don't want to do that too often.
To say Silent Debuggers is tense would be an understatement: every aspect, from its jumpscare-enabling FPS combat to its flashing noises and ticking time bombs seem to be engineered to make you as stressed as possible. It's not a bad way to go about creating a twitch shooter, necessarily, but I've always had a problem with a game-wide time limit. Specifically, that it's very possible to pass the point where success is no longer an option without realizing it and waste the amount of time that's left on a doomed playthrough. There's also that part where you have to do everything at maximum efficiency, and that's easier said than done when you're running through corridors trying to track down Mikami knows how many biological horrors.
It's definitely an interesting experiment though, and the 90s anime presentation is a lot of fun too. We joke at the expense of our absurdly cool floppy-coiffed partner, but he's the kind of goofy one-liner-spouting archetype you saw a lot in action movies back then and I kind of miss seeing them everywhere. I can't speak for how repetitive this game might become (though I imagine with all those currently inaccessible menu options that the game does mix things up a bit later on), but it doesn't seem half bad for what it is.
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