In the famous novel Boris Viana (Boris Vian) “Foam of Days” contrasts with the gray routine, war, the state machine that turns people into cogs, and factories where rifle barrels are grown from human bodies, with cheerful surrealism, jazz, talking mice, fresh flowers fighting cancer, and beautiful metal roses that the “defective” body of the protagonist persistently grows instead of weapons. Mosaic, new work by the authors Among the Sleep, – a modern variation on this theme, only in video game format. Well, or an interactive illustration for a poem Vladimir Mayakovsky "Could you?».
I immediately smeared the map of everyday life by splashing paint from a glass
However, when you see how and what the main character lives here, the first thing that comes to mind is not Vian, and dystopian books and films about how in the gloomy world of the future everything is controlled by digital technologies and machines, and people themselves become machines. Under a leaden sky, they go to work every day in a solid and equally gray crowd to produce results and make a profit. There is practically no room left for feelings and colors in this colorless routine of the endless “Groundhog Day”, and if a yellow butterfly flies somewhere, it will soon be sucked into some ventilation and spit out with only a handful of broken wings..
Although why dystopia and the world of the future? All this is still happening to us in big and small cities. The authors deliberately bring what is happening closer to modern times. For example, the only entertainment for all residents in Mosaic is a smartphone in which you can spend hours mindlessly clicking buttons in the most primitive mini-game or reading news about how everything now needs to be done for the benefit of investors and making money, and everyone who doesn’t fit into this pattern of life is just lazy.
Or about the fact that modern synthetic food is absolutely safe, and only moderate doses of radiation are used for pasteurization. There is also a dating app where all men and women, regardless of age, are absolutely similar to each other – like clones or robots.
I showed on a platter of jelly the slanting cheekbones of the ocean
There is a lot in all this Kafka (Franz Kafka) with his ode to little people who are crushed by the burden of depression, routine and a huge bureaucratic machine. Remember his "Castle" or "Metamorphosis". And what about Viana? The answer is jazz (and music in general) and truly Vian surrealism. If you Kafka in the same “Transformation” resistance to the surrounding reality and routine resulted in a grotesque and ugly surreal, then in Mosaic, as in “Foam of Days”, it is much livelier and lighter.
U Viana there were talking cats https://zeslotscasino.co.uk/withdrawal/ and mice, and here is a talking fish, which one day the hero of the game discovers in his shell. He can take it with him or flush it down the toilet, but she will still appear and increasingly and more insistently talk about the need to change something in life, asking reproachfully when was the last time we did something besides work.
And now our hero begins to stand out from the crowd, stopping to look at a yellow butterfly, at the sky, help a cat get down from a tree or listen to a street musician. And naturally, now he is constantly late for work, which he is regularly reported to on his smartphone. Maybe it’s better to immediately make a wish from the fish to radically change your life and do what you really like?
On the scales of a tin fish I read the calls of new lips
All these themes, metaphors and symbols are more than simple and obvious. We have heard stories about how feelings, emotions, music and color oppose gray everyday life, soulless work and routine. But here you have to see how talentedly, with a sense of real artistic taste and style, the authors show this Mosaic.
Either the hero suddenly soars into the sky, leaving behind an anthill city, then an endless staircase flies up somewhere, along which he goes to work, and the roofs of the houses turn into platforms – you need to walk along them, like a labyrinth. Then the camera flies to the butterfly, following it and only showing our hero in the background, not taking his eyes off the yellow lump of real life. Then behind the hole in the fence the gloomy grayness of the streets and the noise of cars are replaced by a blooming garden and jazz, and some bright cloud of color crashes into the hero.
Then he suddenly finds himself in a glass labyrinth and, wherever he looks, he sees his reflection around him – to get out, we need to follow the trail of grass and flowers and switch to another reflection, once on the other side of the glass. Either he falls into the water, desperately swims towards the light, sees blood on the water or nightmares where some kind of machine speaks to him. That is, again, this is purely Vian surrealism, which distinguishes so favorably Mosaic against the backdrop of other modern statements on eternal topics.
Could you play a nocturne on a drainpipe flute??
If we talk purely about the gameplay, then from other walking simulators (and this is it again, as you already guessed!) Mosaic features mini-games. In addition to those optional mini-games that are on the smartphone, there is another one that is important for the plot.
Every day we go from home to work, and there we need to use running dots (they schematically show workers) to capture diamonds and extract resources. The more dots running, the faster we do it. And the higher the diamonds stretch, the faster we will achieve planned indicators and fulfill our work quota for collecting resources for today. New worker points are generated using special cells, which also need to be captured, and then also pumped up. In addition, sometimes violators appear – these are the same multi-colored clouds that try to color our black diamonds green or purple.
In principle, there is nothing complicated here, but one cannot fail to note the concept itself, the idea of this mini-game, which fits very well into the overall atmosphere. Otherwise, this is a purebred walking simulator, where we just click the mouse all the way so that the hero gets up, takes something, opens a door, goes somewhere or, for example, takes a cat. Plus there are also elements of puzzles when, for example, we try to get out of the same glass maze with reflections.
You can, of course, start the usual whining about the fact that this is another walking simulator with virtually no gameplay, and even a very slow one, where we are forced to repeat the same actions. But in this case it would be especially stupid. This slowness and repetition is precisely the concept – it is necessary to make us really feel the monotonous routine, when the hero gets up every time, turns off the alarm, brushes his teeth and goes to work, blending in with the crowd. There is no room for complex puzzles, entertainment or rollicking action, but only a slow and dull existence, which can only be ruined by some miracle like a talking fish in your shell – well, or just a desire to change something in your life. What Mosaic what is really missing is more convenient mouse control (the character reacts poorly to its instructions) and non-linearity, freedom in how to follow the plot. But all this does not negate the fact that we have before us another stylish and atmospheric indie game that one would like to call a work of art.
Pros: an interesting story steeped in symbolism; beautifully conveyed atmosphere of a soulless city and the daily routine of a modern office person; outstanding artistic style; bright surrealism style Boris Viana; excellent direction and camera work; unusual conceptual mini-games; atmospheric music.
Cons: mouse control does not always seem convenient; lacks nonlinearity and full freedom of choice in the plot.