Master Reboot (PC) review "Next on 'Black Mirror...'"

I don't much care for realism in games. Don't get me wrong; I'll play the occasional realistic piece and even enjoy it, but working at a hospital has given me more than my fill of reality. At the end of a long day, I want imaginative content that defies the ordinary and sometimes harsh place in which we live. I look to entertainment to fill this role, and games tend to pay that kind of material in spades.

However, creativity shouldn't stop with merely a narrative or environment. While inventive stories and locales can help turn tedious games into more engaging affairs, they don't make up for a title's phoned-in mechanics...

Master Reboot ticks the "creative" box in regards to storytelling and style, as it drops you into a surreal landscape without much explanation or guidance. Straight off, gears turn in your head and you're already making up theories. You notice that your surroundings appear to be virtual in nature, as if you're in a computer program. That makes sense, given the title... You explore a bit and slowly figure things out, thankful that this adventure comes with intuitive and simple controls.



It isn't long before you string together bits of backstory. I won't spoil too much, but let's just say it revolves around a social network (called "Soul Cloud") that allows people to upload and the memories and parts of the consciousness of the deceased. Of course, the story also deals with the creators of this network and heartbreak they've suffered. As with any piece of tech in a speculative tale, Soul Cloud goes awry and you must fix it. So how else do you do that except literally stroll down memory lane?

After a brief introduction, you arrive at a hub that takes you to various arenas composed of your old memories. However, something is amiss in each stage. For instance, you don't merely walk around your childhood playroom and play with your old toys, but venture through a looking glass and into a gigantic version of your toy den. There, you explore tremendous dollhouses and slink down a dark alley apparently created by furniture. A sense of dread dogs you at every turn, as if a horrific action figure means to pop up from out of nowhere and eviscerate you. And if you take a wrong turn while exploring that backstreet, you'll meet with a hideous teddy bear who crushes you instantly, confirming your awful suspicions...

Each memory comes with its own corruption, though not all of them sport hazards that kill you. The hospital mostly hits you with poltergeist phenomena and harmless noises in the dark, but then you have a plane ride where you must stealthily sneak past the security program, Seren. This creature, which takes the shape of a pissed-off android, pops up throughout your adventure either to give you a jump scare or outright slaughter you. Though its design is a bit one-the-nose, it definitely adds creepiness with its expressionless face and stilted, robotic movement.



Reboot takes on several different genres and mission types throughout your quest. As you can tell by the plane ride (and especially in a graveyard level), it often hits horror notes. Other times, it thrusts you into puzzle segments where you must tinker with environmental switches and levers to figure out how to advance. Other chapters see you performing more unique tasks, such as driving against traffic or searching a beach for items using a metal detector.

This is where Reboot somehow both succeeds an falters. On one hand, it offers a such fair variety of stage types that it never feels like a repetitive slog and it builds enough intrigue that you wonder what the next level might feature. However, it mostly provides basic trials that come across as padding. For instance, one section involves searching a playground for event items and collecting colored wedges. Although it proves lightly engaging, the puzzles here never feel like anything more than simple tasks contrived to extend the game's length.

I hesitate to say that the puzzles on offer aren't organic, because how do you decide what is or isn't organic in a virtual world? At the same time, it's awfully weird and clumsy when you encounter a section like shooting bells in the correct order during a boss encounter, especially when those items seemingly have nothing to do with the character you're taking on. You pretty much get plopped into a battle with one of the story's antagonists, where you're a random job to complete in order to defeat it rather than a typical rumble. Though the content here defies the standard procedure for boss fights, it breaks tradition in a rather anticlimactic way.



Each memory also sports one final challenge before you officially complete it. Some of these comprise the most grueling beats of the campaign, for better or worse. For instance, one frantic moment sees you trying to outrun a flood by stepping on tiles that serve as springboards. It's a simplistic gauntlet, but it proves effective and somewhat panic-inducing trip.

However, another sub-stage will make you scream at the top of your lungs because it involves first-person platforming--the one thing in games that I despise almost as much as slide puzzles. In one particular area, you run across a bridge while minding a time limit. Meanwhile, towers fall and take out portions of the floor. The thing is you can't exactly discern where the pits lie because the whole location stands in darkness and the bridge itself is pitch black and only lit by tiny, insignificant, white bulbs. Plus, as this is a first-person platform segment, it's tricky to know exactly where and when to jump in order to clear a pitfall. More often than not, you end up plummeting and respawning a ways back while the clock continues to count down.

Some of Reboot's levels come at you with the same level of creativity that its weird, dark world provides, but most of them manifest as dull, unimaginative scenes slapped together as a formality. It's like someone thought, "We need to have something here, so a low key push-block puzzle or standard scavenger hunt will do." Sadly, moments like these diminish what could have been a dark, thrilling adventure through a virtual hell. Sure, I could slate this game for its predictable tech commentary, but I expect that much from a product like this. Plus, I can forgive its "Black Mirror"-ish plot thanks to its wonderfully odd premise and world. However, I also anticipate the same level of ingenuity to go into a game's mechanical elements as it does its story, and that's where I ultimately take issue with Master Reboot.

Staff review by Joseph Shaffer (March 19, 2022) 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.