Three Minutes To Eight is an interesting game with an artistic view of Morality, Ethics, and Philosophy to stimulate the mind.
Developed by Chaosmonger Studios and published by Assemble Entertainment, Three Minutes To Eight is an indie adventure game set in the near future that borders the lines of ethics, morality, and philosophy, as well as blurs the lines of consciousness in an artistic pixel art style world with epic music and well-polished level designs.
Starting off the game, you are given a developer note that explains the premise and goal of this game and how it came to be, giving you three things to remember by the end of it to take into the game. However, before you dive in, you are given the option to do a quick tutorial. The purpose of the tutorial is to explain how to move, run, inspect, and use things within the game.
After having tested out the tutorial, you are ready for the main game, and the adventure into the human mind may begin. Starting Three Minutes To Eight, we are shown a voiced dialogue with a picture of the brain that explains that it’s 7:33 p.m. on an early December evening, set in the year 2043, and how you have awakened from a slumber of an undetermined amount of sleep. Being dazed and confused and having a feeling of something being off about the apartment you’ve lived in for nine years, you can’t quite place the feeling or shake it.
The intercom suddenly goes off, and this is where you actually start moving and exploring this strange yet beautifully pixelated world. Answering the intercom, you are given several responses to start an interaction with an unknown person who starts talking about the end of everything. You are then told that you need to hurry and that you’re the only one who can stop the end of the world; you are prompted to find answers within the city streets.
After moving from the intercom into the bedroom, you are also introduced to a mechanic that only comes into play when moving from place to place. Time does not progress while in one area or place; the only way to have time to move forward a minute is to move from place to place.
After leaving the apartment and making it to the Cyberpunk-like streets, you meet your first NPC, Mrs. Marmokki, as she is looking for her cat. Interacting with the NPC reveals information to you, or rather, your game self is still trying to remember being given some information. You are told if you want more information on the building, you would have to talk to Allen, the receptionist, a bot with tons of information on the building.
Talking to bots and NPCs will update your notes located in the top right corner of your screen, along with items that can be stored in your briefcase, which will act as your inventory; these items can and will be used in a range of things to help piece together the puzzle of your confusion along with the end of the world. Talking to and interacting with characters and NPCs will drop clues and information in the notes pad, which can be used to piece information together in your head, further hinting at the game’s outcome and final answers you will desire to know while figuring out the goals and story itself.
After making it to the streets, you get to meet a bunch of characters with information regarding your situation and different backgrounds, along with a huge bot that seems to be suspicious of you, hinting that you are suspected of doing something wrong. Unfortunately, you don’t have any memories of what happened, nor do you believe you did anything wrong. Overall, this gives the bot some major jerk vibes, and it’ll rudely tell your character to move or vacate the area when you attempt to get to the other side of the street.
With the game being filled with mystery and beautifully designed pixelated levels, the main focus is artistic integrity, with vague messages being pushed through interactions and dialogue. The concept of the game itself is something most people will be able to grasp relatively quickly at first, though eventually, the game can become a bit more confusing as to what items you need to use in which situations.
The pixelated art style and bright neon settings enhance Three Minutes To Eight design, and even though the environments are created using a faux 2D style, the backdrops, and environments, such as the zipping flying cars, give the game a 3D effect, which is not something seen every day. Aside from its amazing 2D and 3D visuals, the music and voice acting is phenomenal and really set the story in motion in such a way that it’ll keep you invested.
Three Minutes To Eight engages with you with its interesting twists that will usually present themselves one at a time. The game can sometimes be a little slow with progression because of the pacing, often slowing down the exciting style of gameplay, though this gameplay style is meant to be repetitive because it will also constantly change and evolve as you go. Three Minutes To Eight has given this genre new life and is worth further explanation in this field.
With venues and places being explored and new information being found, more often than not, new decisions and responses will become available for you to use without realizing what you’ve done to achieve these results. Running around and clicking on everything clickable to determine if you got the right items can be a little of a pain after a while. However, achieving progression in the story is interesting enough to keep you wanting to know and discover more.
With the voice acting being the biggest part of the game’s characters and story setting, it’s easy to say that some of the voice actors did a phenomenal job with some of the characters, such as robots being believable and people really sounding like the backgrounds of their characters. With the voices really hitting home and keeping you invested in getting to know all you can about the characters, this is great for immersion and keeping you hooked.
The protagonist’s voice carries just about every emotion with responses along with the reactions from interactions between the main character and the characters outside, regardless of the location. Granted, the locations play a part, and they all set an overall mood when you ask questions within Three Minutes To Eight.
Now, to say this game has art, philosophy, and morality is an understatement, as the game touches on a wide variety of subjects, such as the fact that your character could’ve taken a substance – hinting towards the memory loss or feeling of confusion, or the fact there’s a strip club just outside your building. This does indicate that Three Minutes To Eight isn’t for the younger generation of gamers as they most likely won’t understand the concept of the message being pushed or the general idea of the story.
Overall, Three Minutes To Eight is a fun but mind-bending game that encourages players to seek the process of the storyline through amazing environmental designs and character building. The game features mind-stimulating concepts, with some really well-placed backdrops that give amazing 2D to 3D effects, and is well worth giving a shot. Three Minutes To Eight can be confusing and sometimes frustrating when looking for key components, but it’s really worth a look through, at least.
