Cradle is a game with a strong science fiction setting in the game you wake up with no recollection of who you are apart from some memories from your childhood and your name that being Enebish and you find a note in your handwriting telling you to make breakfast.
Now truth be told during the game it gives you the option to have a tutorial to learn the basics of the game which I took just to make sure. Then I forgot all about it and spent a good twenty minutes wandering around trying to figure it out again.
In the game, you have to solve various challenges and in doing so you learn about the world around you. Although you do not live in any big cities or towns a tiny hut in the middle of freaking nowhere. After a while of solving the first few puzzles, you must get an M-Body working again “mechanical body.” although it is currently a lamp and cannot walk around anywhere.
After getting the lamp I mean, M-Body fixed you discover that it belongs to a living person who was digitally uploaded into a mechanical body either to use her physical body for harvesting a special substance or it fell gravely ill. You see in this world there is a special substance harvested from a human’s nervous system that can fight this new virus that has shown up. But the other bit is that this substance is tied to a person’s emotions and as such some people produce more or less of it and it’s the only cure for this virus.
But because of this people now has a fiscal worth in this world and a grade of quality and if you are the low quality you are considered to be one of the “uglies“. Essentially the uglies are a burden to society and no one wants them around or even to support them the game also describes a person’s grade not solely on how much of this substance they can produce but also on how corrupt a person’s DNA is.
Alright, a little explanation is needed but I’ll summarize since this is a review. If you inbreed a dog or a cat their genetic structure breaks down and as a result, the offspring become weaker same in humans although that’s called incest and is indeed frowned upon in many societies.
But that is the summary of it. During the story, you are helping a girl named Ida and helping her solve the mystery of why she was buried in the sand for eighteen years and also what happened in the local area, and the biggest question of all “Who are you?“.
But enough of the story, The graphics for the game are pretty amazing and the game looks very stunning despite the fact you are literally in the middle of nowhere in Malaysia the area really gives off a perfect rural feel and there is even a Horse hidden somewhere in there!
Soundtrack I found nice but at times it was a bit off-putting playing a track at the wrong time making me think something important is happening with the plot. The voice acting for the game is pretty garbage there didn’t have any depth or emotion to the voices they used and it felt like one of those audiobooks you listened to in school on the tape player.
Overall though the game is short but very sweet and there isn’t a dull point in the story it even has mini-games! Although the truth is told again the mini-games are all plot related and they even explain why so you know why they are the way they are.
In conclusion, the game is great and the price is great I spent about four hours playing the game and beat it in that time frame and I wasn’t disappointed apart from the voice acting.
The game is simple in design telling a story and making you think about a lot of topics that may be in humanity’s approaching future.
An autistic gamer with opinions on games who also enjoys making dumb videos on the internet!