The Last Dogma

Video game narratives have become as varied as narratives for books as of late. Thanks to the indie market, things have been given more diversity than ever before. However, what happens when these stories become a bit more outlandish, even by video game standards? You'd probably get something like The Last Dogma, developed and published by Sasha Darko, a dark comedy game that is really unlike anything that has been put out so far.

While there is gameplay like shooting a few scattered individuals, for the most part you can just run through the game without doing much of anything other than moving furniture and listening to dialogue. The story is as follows: you are an ATF agent named Sebastian Arise, whose mission suddenly goes awry when it's interrupted by cannibalistic cultists trying to summon a demon. At the very beginning of the game you're treated with a developer's note that mentions that the full explanation of the game is on a Steam discussion page. This is important because the game does not convey the story as well as it should, but that may be part of the comedy that the developer attempts to convey. There's really no cohesive pattern to the comedy in this, and it just appears to be all over the place. Just like the general tone of the story, not making it very clear that this is meant to be a dark comedy at times. It does have clever references to Twin Peaks and The Stanley Parable that did brighten up several situations, but a number of times it just didn't appear to fit the general mood the game was trying to set. The developer also pokes fun at the player throughout the game and while at first it's a “hah” moment, after a while it just ends up less funny as time goes on.

With this said, The Last Dogma's story, despite being a comedy, should not have to rely on the developer themselves telling a long drawn out explanation on the Steam Community page. While one is welcome to say that “you just don't get it,” what doesn't change is the fact that the story isn't conveyed in a way that fits this medium of entertainment. One of the first parts of the game you're treated to is an overview of the history of the world, and the game itself places you in front of a tiny television screen, while a voice drones on in the background on what's been happening in the story. Can you skip it? Yes. Should this have been in the game? No. There is no reason for you to force your players listen to a monotone voice talk over footage on a tiny television screen in order to find out the games story. Do a cutscene, make it scroll by à la Star Wars, anything would be better than this. This does not work and it doesn't happen just once, it happens twice; once at the beginning and once at the end.

There's this thing in visual media called “show don't tell,” and this game just tells and tells and tells till your ears bleed. There's a difference between Dear Esther telling you things, because the theme of the game was a man writing a letter to his wife, and this having the demons droning on about what's going on and how you're nothing more than a puppet. If the dialogue was engaging or well voice acted, it'd be different, but it's not. That's not to say it doesn't show you anything, it does via comic book pages in between chapters that you can look at, which appear on a black screen with the ATF logo in the background. They're so jarring when they happen that it's almost laughable.

Narrative based games aren't known for their gameplay, they're known for their story, but their gameplay has to be competent. In The Last Dogma, you'll find clipping through the walls, getting stuck in areas, being randomly killed by climbing up ladders, not being able to climb up all the ladders presented to you and, let's not forget, bizarre hit box placement. Instead of fitting the box around the item, this game just puts the item in an invisible box and that's it. When your character is walking around in tall grass in the first part of the game, it's like he's a lot shorter than he actually is, the camera is constantly angling downward in such a way that it makes it look like the ATF agent you're playing is a child rather than a full grown adult.

The game takes place in various points all across time, and it's required for you to shoot random terrorists who sometimes turn into animals after you kill them. No, they never explain this, they just do amidst their blood-splattered body and you just shouldn't question it. They build up a boss fight at one point only for one of those comic book scenes to show that the boss found you so pathetic he died laughing, leaving you to listen to another long winded speech by another demon.

A good number of things that happen in the game just appear to be random and happening for no apparent reason other than “IT'S COMEDY JUST GO WITH IT.” They do explain things, but the explanations behind a lot of what is happening are paper-thin at best. In one ending they give you a blue screen of death, no I'm not kidding, and then the game's main “villain” troublemaker states that he's doing it to teach you a lesson before pulling you out of it. If he's doing it to teach you a lesson on never playing this game again then that's a good lesson indeed. There is one thing that is never funny, it's scaring your audience into thinking that your game made their entire computer died. You can call it “dark comedy,” you can say it's just a joke, you can say that the reviewer doesn't have a good sense of humor, I don't care, but you made me think that this game that I just put myself through playing for two hours broke my computer. That's not and never will be funny.

The Last Dogma is a game that tries to be a macabre comedy with a deep, intricate story, but only succeeds at alienating the player. Any game can say that they're a dark comedy and a satirical masterpiece, but succeeding at it is another matter entirely.

Angelina Bonilla, NoobFeed (@Twitter)