Synaesthete

Posted by oddbob on December 12, 2007 · Lovingly Filed Under Reviews 
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“I will sit right down waiting for the gift of sound and vision” - David Bowie

Ok, I was going to have a bit of a discourse on synaesthesia itself, but to be brutally honest with you - I’m full of cold right now and frankly, I can’t be arsed. You’re on the internet, so I guess if you’re really not sure what synaesthesia is it won’t take you 30 seconds to look it up by simply following one of the hyperlinks below.

For the purpose of this review though, you need to know and understand a few basic things.

1. Synaesthesia has been used to great success in games, art and even poetry before now.

2. Synaesthete is one of four games entered into the IGF which blends music and gaming. (I’m not counting Ooki Bloks, as fucking ace as that looks - the musical element appears to be tenuous at best)

3. Synaesthete is described on its homepage thusly: “Synaesthete creates a harmony between player actions and in-game music, in a way that each influences the other. The rhythm and flow of the music is expressed in every detail of the game, so that the visual and audio are not two experiences, but one.”

4. I have no idea how the other three games play as there’s nothing out there for the public as yet.

So, Synaesthete is pretty much describing itself as an experience in synaesthesia. Here’s a list of what Synaesthete really has in common with synaesthesia:

1) The name of the game is Synaesthete.

Yes folks, I’m afraid that’s really where it ends. Unless you count the fact that the game has both music and graphics - in which case you’d count every single game under the sun as a synasthetic experience. In reality it has as much to do with any sort of fusion of the senses as me flashing a light at you whilst kicking you hard in the bollocks would.

Y’see, whilst I’m loathe to slag the game off because it’s actually quite a nice game to look at, listen to and play, none of the elements are really truly brought together to make one “experience” like you’re led to believe. In a nutshell, all Synaesthete really does is add an element of that popular genre Rhythm Action (careful with that googlemobile, Batman) to the arena shooter. Which is no bad thing. What the blurb on the website should read, if it were accuracy we’re seeking, is this: “Synaesthete is a Dance! Dance! Robotron! with one eye on the pretentious” or perhaps “Synaesthate is Dance! Rez! Robotron!”, I dunno. I prefer the former because at least Rez goes a long way towards providing a proper synasthetic experience.

Ok, so I’m being pretty negative up to now about the game, and perhaps that’s a little unfair. After all, despite the blatant visual steals from the likes of Rez it’s generally a beautiful game to look at, the ingame music is incredibly fitting and works to set the mood for the game (sadly, that’s pretty much where the audio/visual binding ends)and although a tad on the easy side it plays pretty nicely. It’s really polished and best of all, it’s free to download and free to play so it’d be rude to not at least take a gander at it.

I do have one thing I’d really beg of the designers, and in fact any designers thinking of including a similar thing in their games - please, please, please leave the cod philosophical bollocks at home. That is, unless you actually have something to say with it and it works in context with the game. It’s not big, clever nor any more “art”, it’s just shit meaningless drivel clogging up screen space..*

*unless you’re aiming to produce a stream of meaningless drivel then obviously that’s alright. Phew. Clambered out of that one!

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