OBSOL33T sees you taking on a pastel world through the eyes of a character in a wheelchair.
At first, this isn’t directly stated in OBSOL33T. Instead, you are presented with a character who is moving around a lobby of some sort. The elevator is broken, yet you want to get to the lower level. Naturally, you might move towards the stairs nearby. That’s when you notice something isn’t quite right.
Your character suddenly says that they can’t take the stairs, joking about the idea of it. It’s at about this point you realise that the movement within the game feels a bit odd because you’ve been rolling around a wheelchair. Finding your way through the rest of the world, now that you know this, changes the way you view your route and move around. You suddenly need to look for ramps and find your way through narrow hallways without getting stuck on door frames.
OBSOL33T aims to take you on a colorful and fun adventure that is only limited by where your wheelchair can take you. Despite this limitation of movements, your character isn’t depressed or upset. Instead, they are able to find their way through the world by hacking various bits of technology and creating their own routes.
Hacking takes place in a mini-game where you rotate concentric discs to reveal a picture. Once you’ve hacked a bit of technology, you return to the world able to use it.
I recently took on the demo of OBSOL33T at EGX 2018 and enjoyed the bright colours and take on moving around the world in a wheelchair. Despite this being a game, I did feel that the wheelchair movement wasn’t quite right yet. Moving down ramps without braking heavily nearly forces your character out of their chair and into a wall. I understand that the developers are focused on highlighting the struggles of being a wheelchair user while also making a positive world to explore, however I wish that moving in a wheelchair was less cumbersome, as it felt like the game was made to be difficult. With that said, I feel that OBSOL33T is doing a wonderful job of making a positive game about a character in a wheelchair.
If you want more information on OBSOL33T, you can follow the devs on Twitter @SodaFloatGames or check out their website.
Comments are closed.