103 (PC) review "Stareway to Purgatory"

You may be familiar with the term “walking simulator.” The first title that springs to mind, for me at least, is Dear Esther: a game in which you play an old man who slowly traipses around and island, talking to absolutely no one while gawking at vague symbolism. Needless to say, it's a painfully dull experience that I wouldn't wish on most people. However, there's an offshoot of that genre you might not be familiar with: “staring simulators.”

Okay, I made that one up. No, I didn't coin the term with the intention of making it stick because I don't wield that kind of influence in the games writing stratosphere. Rather, I tossed it out there to underscore just how underwhelmed I was with a different piece: 103, a first-person adventure where you advance its brief campaign by literally staring at things.

To its credit, 103 doesn't beat you over the head with its mechanics. It drops you into a single, looping hallway that stirs memories of P.T., sans the vague allusions to Silent Hill. Here, the art style gives us a more playful presentation associated with a mixture of vaudevillian acts, Hot Topic, and Tim Burton. I'm sure some of you have just vomited, and for that I apologize. However, a fair few of you may have read that description and added this number to your Steam wishlist, and I wouldn't advise that move. You see, the art style and presentation are where this game's maybe-compelling features end. It's all downhill from here...



If you're like me, you'll skip your first order of business, partly because your initial objectives are unclear. More than that, though, you want to take in your surroundings and gaze at all the little details waiting to be noticed. Old posters, photographs, and carved messages line the walls, some of them serving as obvious hints for later puzzles, and others hinting at in-game lore or backstory. There's a lot to take in here, and it certainly makes the outset pleasant. However, things start to go south when you decide you want to advance the plot.

103 doesn't outright tell you what to do. Sure, it does provide a hint, but you must search for it. You mosey about the area until you find a feminine mannequin staring at a framed canvas instructing you to look at it. You step forward, focus the camera on it, watch as it zooms in and wait. The message on the canvas disappears, replaced by a new scrawling providing fresh clues or instructions. All through the power of staring! Take that, Care Bears...

Really, this is the whole campaign right here. Two framed squares found throughout the halls compel you to stare at the them, then offer a suggestion regarding your next moves. As you might've guessed, the following mission involves plodding along until you find just the right thing in the collection of junk to eyeball, which you do until something else in the vicinity changes. From there, you figure out what to gaze upon next...



I can't even begin to tell you how tiring this process remains from start to finish. Yes, you get two “puzzles” in the interim, but both lack any sort of engrossing feature. For instance, one has you staring at mirrors in a certain order until each one breaks. More than anything, this segment comes across as filler. Another fulfills a part in the storyline, but it leaves you completing the dull task of peering at multiple glasses of alcohol until they empty. After that, you roam around the premises drunk, and you know exactly where the tale is going...

I can't count how many of these games revolve around abuse, trauma, drunk driving, or depression. Granted, I think gaming is a solid place to tell your story, and a lot of people have dealt with these struggles, but going through so many thinly veiled metaphors from the aforementioned list has left me jaded. Are there no other serious parts of the human condition we can explore with this category? Are we really doomed to to play short titles like this, only to roll our eyes and say, “Trauma again?” Yeah, I feel like a bastard saying that, but man, I get it already.



The problem is you can often spot a game's message from a mile away these days, and 103's was pretty obvious after reading some of the posters on the wall that talked about consuming alcohol and driving alone. When experiences like this one become predictable, it's difficult to see their morals as anything more than exercises. Honestly, that's the last thing I want to say about this piece because its revelation was obviously special to its creator. However, one must consider: what other ways can I communicate this point? Are there other lenses through which I can look at it, or are there other conflicts I could present to add a fresh take on this message?

Wash, rinse, repeat—stare, walk, stare, walk, stare, walk until the affair ends, leaving you with naught but a shrug. Artsy games like 103 shouldn't be so rote. When they're effectively executed, they present solid ways for gamers to curb burnout. After all, there are only so many horrors, RPGs, platformers, and shooters I can take before I need to cleanse the old palate. Sadly, offerings like this one don't quite scratch that itch. They only reinforce the notion that first-person adventure games pay style in spades while ignoring substance.

Staff review by Joseph Shaffer (October 03, 2024) Rumor has it that Joe is not actually a man, but a machine that likes video games, horror movies, and long walks on the beach. His/Its first contribution to HonestGamers was a review of Breath of Fire III.