Maybe it’s because I haven’t delved deep enough into the indie realm, or maybe because I’ve only been playing PC games since 2013, but the demo for [I] Doesn’t Exist on the showroom floor of PAX West this year was my first time playing a text-based adventure game. [I] Doesn’t Exist, developed by LUAL Games KIG is being released for PC next week (September, 12th) and the 20 minutes I got to spend with it already has me counting down the hours to its release.
The exploration and interaction via text commands is a satisfyingly immersive experience in itself. If you want to open a door, you type “open the door.” and the avatar you control does so. If you want to move to the right, you type “move to the right” and off you go. Eventually, you forget you’re typing commands and it almost feels like you’re controlling the game by thinking. This concept gets extremely eerie when you realize that the developers intend to explore deep themes of mental illness and existential dread.
But on its surface, [I] Doesn’t Exist is a text-based adventure/puzzle-solving game. The tutorial shows you simply how to pick something up and put it in a box. That’s all the info you really need to get started. You’re then put into a world where your thoughts guide you and puzzles are your first obstacle. You see a bucket in a tree, but you can’t reach it, so you need to find something heavy to throw at it. You slowly gain more items in your inventory, which you can check by typing “check inventory” and the text will list each item you’re carrying.
Your entire journey will be guided by a text-based narrator to help describe environments and set the scene. Whenever you stop moving, the narrator will draw your attention to the objects you can see and when you attempt an action the narrator will let you know how it went. I felt it slowly becoming like my own thoughts in an eerie way as the text and my own internal voice started to bleed into one.
I think [I] Doesn’t Exist has a lot of potential to be an intriguing text-based adventure game, but if it truly leans into the murky waters of psychology the way the developers seem to imply it will, I think there’s potential to have another mind-bending existential experience similar to games like Doki Doki Literature Club or Soma. I personally can’t wait to find out.
