Platforms: PS4 (reviewed), PC
Developer: Nilo Studios
Introduction:
Asemblance is an odd beast. At times, I hesitate to call it a game due to its minimalist approach to interaction; it functions as more of an interactive narrative experience. Developer Nilo Studios doesn’t hide from that fact, saying that they have crafted Asemblance out of a desire for “creative experimentation.”
Nilo Studios is a brand new, 3 person studio led by former Bungie Developer, Niles Sankey and Asemblance is their debut title. The company is hopeful that Asemblance can take off so that they can keep adding more and more games to the franchise, which is good because frankly, this is a story that barely scratches the surface of what it could be.
Asemblance is likely to be a divisive game for those who are fans of narratively focused first person adventures (or walking sims, whatever you want to call them). Depending on your point of view, its interactions will either be simple or limited, its narrative either complex or confusing and its payoff will either make you look to the future or cause you to say, “that’s it?”
Asemblance was built to be brief experience, as total playthroughs can range from an hour, maybe two if you take your time, but I just didn’t feel like Asemblance, on its own, does quite enough to make me feel like I was satisfied with its outcome.
Asemblance is not about gameplay.
Though you could argue that about a lot of narratively focused first person adventures, Asemblance is indeed all about the journey. Controls for this game are very simple: press X to interact with designated objects within the environment, press triangle to end the simulation, and the right trigger to run. Outside of the thumbsticks to move, you can get an idea how little you are actually going to be interacting with the environment.
It’s not that you aren’t engaging with Asemblance, you are, just not in a way that traditional games would make you expect. You have to pay attention to documents strewn about the office environment and listen for any alternate meaning behind the words of the AI that talks to you through most of your adventure in order to find clues to the next step.
The narrative draws you in but pulls back and expects you to put everything together
Asemblance expects its players to take an active role in interpreting its narrative when the game itself is very much a passive experience. The game opens to the sound of blaring alarms, you don’t know what’s going on or why it’s happening. You answer a small questionnaire before you activate the simulation machine which takes you back to your character’s previous memories.
The concept in and of itself is novel and intriguing, but it quickly wears down on you when you realize how small and limited each of the spaces are. The size of the environments wouldn’t matter as much if I didn’t feel like I was constantly re-traversing the same place for some small clue that I missed. And believe me, you will be doing that.
Re-using environments with the whole loop narrative logic isn’t necessarily a bad thing either, but it’s all about how you do it. PT was great at this, which was essentially the same few hallways that would have some sort of notable difference to let you know that you were on to something. Asemblance flashes this brilliance in a few spots for moments that are authentically skin-crawling, but it just never stays consistent.
Verdict:
Asemblance is a game built for people who like love combing through every little detail to piece together a narrative that’s bigger than the one presented. That is both Asemblance’s strength and weakness. It is packed with these little details, but the story it presents can feel so convoluted that it feels like I’m forced to go through the little details just for a hint of where to go next.
When I think about what this new franchise could offer as a whole, I’m very much intrigued since the endings I have found have answered very few of my questions. The problem is, if I take this particular entry of Asemblance by its own merits, it’s tough to recommend to even the most narratively-oriented gamers.