Indie Game: Thomas Was Alone

One of the last indie games released on the PS3 shouldn't be forgotten.

I’m typing this expecting not many will read it. I’m typing this knowing full well this in a post-E3 week world, everyone is, at the very least, interested in the “what comes next.” With a few empty bottles of syrah on my small table, next to the bills, I’m struggling to think something ‘catchy’ as a headline. It’s probably best to go with the truth.

I played Thomas Was Alone on PS3 three weeks ago and boy is there a lot going on. After playing it, for some reason I wanted to watch Reboot. So I watched Reboot. Now weeks later, I’m struggling to remember the impression Thomas Was Alone left on me, considering all those bad later episodes of Reboot. I’m amazed I’m recommending this game to anyone reading this, considering Reboot just broke my heart. It’s really turns out that the show is super awful.

If anything, this indie game created by Mike Bithell serves as another reminder to the impending next generation of gaming. We have to stop making excuses as to why game mechanics and silly things like an interesting narrative with character development are a rarity in bigger budget titles. Bithell, in every literal syllable I can type, created a story using only words and shapes. Even within that, the format of shapes he gives the player control over are all of the parallelogram variety. Even within these limits, characters like Thomas are given personality, motives, attributes. It made me upset that I poured so much time into BioShock: Infinite.

The notable catch of making a BioShock game is the need for a bigger return on investment -- both from the industry and the consumer. Craftsmanship is separated from mechanics and story, not realizing the full potential of a game that needs the latter and the former. Hundreds of people working thousands of fine points. Too many moving parts for everything to be well-oiled. Thomas Was Alone isn’t too difficult to understand. It isn’t an arthouse, “interactive experience” that will have you question your life and all events within. Or maybe it will? I mean I did watch Reboot.

Play Thomas Was Alone, before it’s too late. Before we all are rocketed into the future and are forced to forget games from this generation. Oh. You didn’t know that was going to happen? Sorry to break the news to you like this.