All the Delicate Duplicates

If you're expecting a story rich game, do not buy this.

Gameplay consist solely of just walking around and picking up items to look at them.

It feels like project from a student thrown together in a few weekends with the intent to try and make the game deep or something, it feels more like /r/Im14AndThisIsDeep because it contains more or less nothing. It is just trying to use already existing tropes here and there to make you think "omg... wow.... this is so deep" when in fact it is not, it is nonsensical garbage made up and it doesn't mean anything, with dumb graphical effects to make you feel as if it is such a trippy and 'woah' game.

Think Dear Esther, which is made by students just huffing their own farts but at least they tried to achieve something, but without any story at all and instead occasionally some trope happens, you can just imagine the students faces: https://i.imgur.com/gSa3rdX.png - "They just don't get it" while huffing their own farts.

The positive reviews are almost giving me 2nd-hand embarrassment. People are acting as if this is some amazing "WOW" game and being blown away by simple, garbage 'psychedelic' effects.
Any person that is fully developed and self-aware cannot play something like this and see it as some amazing wow-factor philosophically deep game, it isn't at all.

The game is laden with motion blur, over-exaggerated blooming and other garbage effects.

Even if it was completely different and was half-decent, 8$ for a copy-pasted asset game is ridiculous.

No options menu, like, literally no options or settings menu exists.
Weird to not have controller support in a game like this, it would be incredibly easy to add. The 'Partial Controller Support' tag is a lie.

Curator page

This game is a psychological drama about a single father and his daughter (the Sykes)—or is it a sci-fi drama about a single father and his daughter?—in which a set of peculiar objects, inherited from an “Aunt Mo“, play an important role. It’s also the only game I’ve played so far that isn’t vilifying its possibly schizo.typal[affective][phrenic] character.

The main mechanic is you walking around in the Sykes househould at different times, looking at their belongings, reading notes and journals, etc... One could compare it a bit to Gone Home, but with a dreamlike twist to it. The ramifications of what you learn, as you progress, might be more than your human mind can comprehend, but you will have to deal with it. There is also an extra play mode to discover.

The story has many layers and it might take a few playthroughs to get a sufficient understanding of what actually happened. The game world is a bit like a crime scene, but there’s no crime nor a victim, just pieces of a complex puzzle.

Aunt Mo’s texts are, although written in English, pretty hard to read, but they are apparently compressed using Mezangelle, a machine/natural hybrid invented by Mez Breeze. This pseudo-language is constructed in such a way that it allows for one set of text to be read in multiple ways and therefore convey different messages at the same time.

The atmosphere is reminiscent of that in a horror game, but calling it such would be cheapening it, I think. It’s more of an “existential drama with experimental undercurrents or overtones of something not entirely defined”.

Full review:
https://maskinkultur.com/2018/04/19/review-all-the-delicate-duplicates/

I thought for sure I would disagree with the negative reviews on this game, but sadly, I agree with them. It is not much of a game at all. It feels like it was just thrown together without any real story or gameplay. I think it had potential to be good, but it is not worth the time nor the money. By the way, I finished this game in like 10 minutes. Not cool for the price.

Pick your truth:

* This is a tale of communicable mental illness.
A husband has his wife committed, then slowly goes insane (with guilt?).
Pros:
* Awesome story and portrayal of altered perceptions.
* Much of the more confusing pieces are in random text, which you have to manually sort out.
Cons:
* Confusing story and random scrawlings, which make you think.

* This is a confusing ride, full of lies and half-truths.
The wife worked for a cult-y company, and her husband ill-advisedly read her work then went nuts.
Pros:
* Awesome story and portrayal of altered perceptions.
* Confusing story and random scrawlings, which make you think.
Cons:
* Much of the more confusing pieces are in random text, which you have to manually sort out.

ROT-13 for teh win:
Gurer'f yvrf, unys yvrf, naq qnzarq puvpxra genpxf npebff gur zvaq juvpu yrnq gb envaqebc ubefrurnq oyvmmneq jbeqf naq ragvpr gur vaabprag vagb orvat fgnyxrq ol navzngr purff cvrprf bs RIVY! (gur pbashfvat znqarff bs juvpu, vapvqragnyyl, nyfb znxrf vg rnfl gb zvf-ernq gur fho-cybg naq oryvrir gung vg'f zreryl nobhg enzcntvat obggyrf shyy bs Xyrvaarff naq xvggr--- [h]fgbc[/h] gung, jr GNYXRQ nobhg guvf!)
Gur jvsr jbexrq sbe n oyrrqvat-rqtr pbzcnal juvpu oebxr tebhaq va pebff-qvzrafvbany erfrnepu, naq ure uhfonaq vyy-nqivfrqyl ernq ure jbex - juvpu gura fhpxrq uvf zvaq naq gurve qnhtugre'f zvaq vagb rira qrrcre ernyzf bs jbeyqf bs urnegnpur naq enintvat pybhqf bs wnttrq-rqtrq ireovpnoontr.
Cebf:
* Ubyq bagb lbhe urnq, orpnhfr gur gbc bs vg'f tbvat gb or hafperjrq naq fung vagb.
* Gur enaqbz fpenjyvatf npghnyyl ZRNA fbzrguvat. GUVAX nobhg gurz! (ohg jngpu bhg, orpnhfr gurl znl or ernqvat [o]lbh[/o] gbb)
* Gur zber pbashfvat cvrprf' enaqbz grkg, juvpu lbh unir gb znahnyyl fbeg bhg, cebivqr fbzr bs gur zbfg vagrerfgvat uvagf nf gb jung'f tbvat ba. Bs pbhefr, gur orfg bar vf bayl ivfvoyr ng gur irel raq bs gur tnzr.

9/10 - The game is short, even if you go digging for details, but it's well worth it if you like finding your own truths.

6/10

All the Delicate Duplicates is basically a walking simulator in which your character's reality appears to be shattered. Your character has the ability to move between "realities" at will, and you will find that certain objects can transport you to different time periods in the character's life. In addition, certain memories and statements have such significance that they are physically overlayed over your environment. For instance, in one section of the game, an enormous chess piece slowly shifts through the hallway in your home.

All the Delicate Duplicates plays with a lot of interesting ideas. Although the game didn't really add up to much for me, it brought to mind various media. For instance, the modernist authors (James Joyce/Willam Faulkner/Virgina Woolf) often demonstrated the way that the past can be the present, in terms of making decisions and constructing ourselves. In some ways, All the Delicate Duplicates toys with this idea as well. Our dead parents and grandparents still affect our lives, and we see them reflected everywhere.

In addition, one theme reminded me of the film Arrival, based off of the book by Ted Chiang. A piece of knowledge can be so powerful that simply knowing it can change reality, like the language gifted by the alien race. Mo, a character who has ostensibly left a box of warped glass bottles to her "relatives", seems to have made such a discovery.

Unfortunately, I felt that the ability to shift in time wasn't explained well. When using the "T" command to switch, I never knew quite where the game would take me or why I had this ability in the first place. I also didn't like that it was so easy to miss content. With such a short experience, designed with care, I'd prefer the ability to more thoroughly explore the environment. I had to play through the game twice to see everything I wanted to see, and some of the content (Charlotte's drawings) were quite intriguing.

All the Delicate Duplicates presents a good deal of food for thought, though I was a little disappointed by the ending. If you're generally a fan of walking simulators and environmental storytelling, I can give the game a cautious recommendation.

I guess this is what the kids today call being woke, right? If it is, then sign me up. This is flipping fantastic.

Played through the beta demo of this a while ago and finally bought a copy. Great to see how beautiful and sad it is so far with only skimming the surface. Looking forward to going through it again and working out things like what's with those vanishing and reappearing words in the backstory part.

Started this game with an open mind, and suddenly i was thrown into some trippy world and couldn'tr figure anything out, did not have fun, did not understand anything. This game attempts at an interesting narritive bit fails because it focuses too much on trying to be different. Sorry cannot reccomend

This. This game right here. Characters, world. A mind in pieces. The story was huge. A tragedy. One thing is, words need more time on screen. They disappear real fast. But gorgeous. And tragic.

Well, if you want to play a Black Mirror episode in video game / ARG form, this is the thing for you.

It suffers from issues a lot of environmental storytelling has, which is: Is A true, or B true? WHAT HAPPENED?

Oh, C happened instead. How about that.

Negative points for tried tropes involving: chess, quantum, Schrodinger's Cat

**POSSIBLE SPOILERS**

If you're in search of a heavy story, I don't suggets this game. While the graphics and theme are very cool, I was very confused once the original ending came. Playing Mo's perspective gave a teensy bit more insight, but only of her demise, not anything about the initial car accident, how John was able to switch time zones, or where Charlotte went. There are quite a few gaps, and this story had a ton of potential, but ultimately I was left confused for a good chunk of the game.

Wow! Mouth open, "Wow." is quite literally all I could muster at the end. Quite the surprise is played on the player too, regarding how a major plot device is presented. I cannot say I understand this game completely, but was blown away with how it was portrayed, nonetheless. It was a visual feast, and very detailed if you take the time.

I feel after playing that I've just watched the sure winner at the Independant Film Spirit Awards! It's that good. YES, I recommend it! I will definitely need to go back and play it again after a break.

Wow, beautiful poetry-coated walls and streaming ribbons of consciousness snaking through the hallways. Explore & sleuth this tangled mystery or just let yourself be swept along -- the game rewards either approach. Highly recommended!

It is good for the price ($7.99) but I was hoping for more of a longer game rather than something I can beat in a few hours at most even with the multiple endings. The graphics are good and it is pretty creepy at times which is nice. Overall a good game for the price but if it was any higher I wouldnt recommend it due to its extremely short story

A friend recommended I try this and at 1st it wasn’t all that, gave it a quick go, getting to the end, or what I guessed was the end in just under 30, impressed by the atmosphere but not sold on the story.

Then I let it sit with me for a bit, and I couldn’t stop thinking about how John had messed up his daughter, or she’d messed him up too, and them both being obsessed with Mo.

So I gave it another proper run though, didn’t rush through it this time, and, wow, now I can see what all the fuss is over, all the chess bits linked to mental illness, and scifi aspects, and time loops showing more and more item reveals, and the ending just being incredibly sad.

I won’t say more about the ending, but if you take the time to go through it all, you’ll see what I mean.

Great looking game. Was hooked by the wild story and that it all came together though the smallest of hints. Loved finding clues on basic stuff, calenders, stickies, taking my time with it all. The back and forward story menu option really helped bring it all together. Could have done with a flashlight option in the apartment and some of the writing took some time to work out. Loved the visuals, wanted more to open up in the Mo Universe section. The sound was good too. All up was a great play.

Sounded nice "on paper", looked quite bad on screen. At first I thought something was wrong with my graphics card, but seems this "geniously made" experimental? "game" was ment to be like this. Pity I don't seem to have the time nor patience to see it through, as I understand(?) that there is a story behind this ... something, at least a lot of text (nicely made though... at times) and boring moments. . sorry I mean, interesting and even... whatever.
There were some annoying things with voice, sounds, music, like sometimes things were recorded by different person with different levels or, shrug.
Was going to have a refund, but as I do not do those, I failed on that... So, maybe one day I try this again and see how great game / experience this is. 'till then, no....
Yes yes I didn't walk it fully to have a review, who cares ;) What I saw and heard myself, for now at least, was enough.

Cheers...

Lacklustre and uninspired exploration game in the vein of Dear Esther or The Old City Leviathan. No sense of mystery nor any David-Lynch-like intrigue.

The art style and graphics are overall interesting.

All The Delicate Duplicates is a delightfully surreal, mind-bending experience. I was intrigued by the initial trailer several months ago and I'm happy to find that it more than lives up to my expectations. The game is somewhat non-linear but still directed - it invites multiple playthroughs to discover any items or bits of story you might have missed the first time. It's fun to sift through the madness and piece together what's going on.

If you enjoy walking simulators, you owe it to yourself to play this game; it's a wonderful experience.

Do you like "walking simulator" style games like Gone Home, Everybodys Gone to the Rapture, or Dear Esther? If so, you'll probably also ike this game. I am a fan of the genre, and thought that this was right up there with the titles I mentioned (at least so far). You play as a father looking for his missing daughter by looking for clues in his house, but you can time travel between several different time periods, and as you do, the house around you also changes. I played through the first bit of the game, and explored some of the different times, no real spoilers so feel free to watch my video below if what I described sounds interesting.
https://youtu.be/l98i-UCizAs