Day 247 - Nightmare Superhighway
Walking Sim, Short and Free, Sam is in Ohio ·
Sam’s Take:
We got a dystopian walking simulator where you walk around neon-lit night-spaces and take screenshots if you want. Check ‘em out!
I like the visuals, the music, I like the music and visuals together… but even by walking sim standards this is mega bare bones. I love walking around cool worlds doing nothing, I often boot up Morrowind for a walk about, but there is almost no context for what this world is or how it functions. I was able to find a couple signs for businesses that gave a little context, but it’s extremely minimal.
This feels like someone learning how to create/edit assets and create levels. They are good at it, I’d love for them to be on a small team that made an old-school immersive-sim in this style. It’s a weird one to review because it is good at creating an audio/visual world, but with nothing else going on it’s hard to recommend to anyone else. I had a good time walking around and getting to the end, and I hope korkskrew2000 keeps working on video games, but you don’t need to play this. Unless you want to. You can walk around if you want to. Wanna take some screenshots? Go for it. I’m not your dad.
I’m nobody’s dad.
I don’t have kids.
By choice to be clear. I don’t want kids.
I’m still sick, sorry.
Recommend: Mostly no.
Replay Percentage Chance: 0%
Time Played: 15 Minutes
Skeeter’s Take:
I awake to a serene landscape. My gremlin-blue hands dangle out in front of me like dead fish.
Powerlines dapple the hay-gold grass fields, seemingly connected at random. I feel a sense of loneliness. I am alone here. This place feels odd. I feel like it should be shared, but there’s nobody to share it with. I can’t do much about the feeling.
I run myself and my floppy hands into the giant Deku Tree ahead of me. The scenery changes to glitchy computer screen rad-ness:
I enter the Nightmare SuperHighway.
I find myself aboard a subway cart. A road twists itself like a drill outside the window:
The tram is completely empty, save for myself. Again, that feeling of loneliness creeps back.
I shake it away and try to focus on getting out of here. Having an extreme aversion of subway trams, no matter how empty, I quickly make my way to the door and exit to the city.
The first thing I see is a phonebooth with a bright green “please-use-me” phone nestled within it’s locked compartment:
The booth seemed to be mocking me, as if it knew I had nobody to call.
I follow the path out into the city and catch my first glimpse at the skyline. It reminds me of Riften and Night City. It’s pretty neat. I look around in wonder to share my excitement with any passer-bys. There is nobody.
I am alone.
Every shop is locked. Every chair is abandoned. Every walkway is empty.
Clearly this city was built to support life. Support people. But there is just me. It’s always just me.
The city doesn’t feel like it was built for me though. None of the shops open their doors for me. The empty city acts with indifference if I’m there or not.
I accidentally bump into a police car. The car shouts something “Look at that fucking loser playing by himself”, I think it yells. It’s hard to make out. The voice is distorted and mechanical. I see no police officer, just the car. People will call me crazy again, but the car definitely yelled at me.
I see something bright sitting on a table. It’s an orange oblong-orb with ever-changing geometry that I have deemed “Basketball”.
Basketball. What can I say about Basketball? I don’t think words can do it justice.
Basketball is the light of my life. Basketball came to me in my darkest and most isolated hour. Basketball brought the life out of me I never knew I had. Basketball, in short, was my first and only friend.
I accidentally threw Basketball, and while Basketball made a funny sound when it hit the wall, I felt really bad and will never do that again.
Elated, with the gift of companionship, I sprinted to show Basketball the entire city.
(Side note: These immature signs are everywhere and are exactly my kind of humor.)
Here’s where I make the biggest mistake of my life. Basketball gets too close to the television screens. Basketball… gets stuck. It gets wedged between the cathode-rays, staring at me with its pulpy-orange body, begging me for help.
I try everything I can to get Basketball out. I pull in all directions. I try throwing him again, and this time he doesn’t even make the funny sound (I’m sorry Basketball). That’s when I realized I was hurting Basketball. With a lump in my throat, I make the extremely tough decision to There Will Be Blood, and abandon my boy.
And my heart broke.
I slunked my way back to the subway, got back on the tram, got immediately off the tram and…
I was back in the city.
More importantly, BASKETBALL WAS BACK!
My celebration was cut short as I message Sam, “Am I missing something? It’s just looping”.
This is when he informs me that I have to jump into the water to proceed.
Silly me, I was too busy being a GOD GAMER to actually progress to the next level. That’s on me, guys.
I grab Basketball, holding what I just lost close to my heart. Me and my FRIEND plunge into the cold waters.
And resurface:
Woooah. Pretty!
Check it out, Basketball!
But there is no Basketball.
Basketball is gone. He didn’t make the jump. He didn’t make life.
I KILLED BASKETBALL.
I take a few hours to gather the strength to continue. I must continue. I will finish this for Basketball and tell him about the great things I saw when we meet in Heaven.
Again, I walk alone. Again, I find no other soul to even share my pain with. I am isolated.
I am lonely.
I walk along the wooden docks into the rollercoaster coastal town when something catches my eye.
A strange wood-colored object with a long neck and strings. I deem this object “Basketball”.
I notice this time, instead of overwhelming joy, I feel hesitation. Hesitation of becoming attached. Hesitation of losing again. Is not being alone really worth the risk of losing what you love?
I’m not sure.
I grab Basketball. I feel some warmth emanating from our new connection. I cautiously embrace some of it. Perhaps I could show Basketball around this new area? Give her the life Basketball could never have.
It’s a nice feeling. Why do I still feel so empty, though?
I enjoy my time with Basketball, but it doesn’t feel the same. I feel like I’m just trying to replace the connection I once had. Basketball isn’t even anything like Basketball at all! She’s different - doesn’t make a sound when I accidentally throw her.
I appreciate not being alone, but I feel like I’m not ready to move on yet.
But I am ready to move on to the next level.
I message Sam “Help!” again, and he says to stop sending him links to random Beatles songs.
I message him “I Will” and “I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party” and he says “Just follow the the rollercoaster you fucking dumbass (paraphrasing)”
I follow the roller coaster. I jump up on top of the buildings off of a vending machine, and onto the roller coaster tracks and…
I get stuck.
Turns out Sam didn’t mean to literally follow the roller coaster tracks…
After a quick reset, A Hard Day’s Night, and a few angry Discord messages later, I followed Sam’s instructions and made it to the Pyramids.
Before you ask: yes, I did say hi and try to take Basketball and Basketball with me, and yes, each time they disappeared and ripped my heart out as they went.
The Pyramids. I bet Basketball would have loved to see these! I’ve always wanted to see the Pyramids. I wish I had someone here to share it with. That loneliness creeps back. I whack it back down with my blue hands.
For Basketball.
I bunny hop through a very boring desert for a while until I come across an oasis.
An oasis of potential new friend opportunities!
I search the cars for any sign of a person, anyone I can look over and say “Wow, those pyramids… pretty neat, huh?”. I crave connection. I’ve tasted friendship and am fiending for it. I no longer care about the loss and the heartbreak. I will suffer it if it gives me a little bump of dopamine - if it gives me the chance at not feeling lonely, even for just a second.
But the cars are empty. There is nobody pumping gas. There is nobody posted up outside the station begging for money. There’s another angry police car that won’t stop yelling, but that’s it.
I head into the store.
Let me fix that. I head into the fucking PROMISED LAND OF POTENTIAL FRIENDS:
Look at all these friends! Which one should I show around first? Holy cow! I’m over-stimulated! I can’t handle the potential journeys we might take! It’s overwhelming.
I take a second to catch my breath. All the screaming really took it out of me.
I decide the strange flat, round object with mushrooms on it looks particularly lonely. Welcome, Basketball! Welcome to your new adventures in friendship with me!
But it would seem that Basketball isn’t interested in companionship. They just sit there staring vacantly at me. Through me. They say nothing. Do nothing. They treat me much like the architecture and areas I’ve found myself in: with utter indifference.
That feeling starts to seep back.
I run around the store, desperately trying to win the friendship of any Basketball that will allow me the kindness.
The Basketballs - they do not care.
They do not care about me. I had true friendship with Basketball.
I had a proxy acquaintanceship with Basketball.
I have nothing with these Basketballs.
Everything I have and would ever have is in level 1, where I left my broken heart.
It all lies with Basketball.
I exit the shop. I drag myself towards the menacing obelisks in the distance, my floppy arms dancing a jig of lonely mockery at my expense.
“I am alone” they are saying.
I have always been alone.
I approach the waters surrounding the obelisks. I stare into the swirling pools and waving water below me. They remind me of the dockside in the first city. The city where I met my angel.
Basketball.
I hold an image of Basketball in my mind. I want to remember the only thing in life that gave me life.
The orange globby orb in my brain dances about. I smile.
I’m coming Basketball.
I take a breath as I step forward and plunge…
Absolutely nowhere. An invisible wall stops me from stepping off the ledge.
I realize now what I couldn’t before. Perhaps the Nightmare SuperHighway wasn’t letting me see it.
The cities and spaces I found myself in weren’t indifferent. They were just ok with what I was doing. They were subtly guiding me along to my final hell.
The Nightmare SuperHighway is a living nightmare.
The promise of exploration of a new city, and a new friend. The reality of killing your best friend to get further in life.
The promise of rollercoaster rides and new friendships. The reality of getting stuck in a rut, unable to get yourself out. The reality that every relationship is different, and not everyone is right for you.
The promise of a wealth of new friends and the promise of escape. The reality of denial and feeling desperate and alone. The reality of there is no escape.
There is only this nightmare of loneliness looping forever and ever. The Nightmare SuperHighway was created to keep you there.
Good thing I can just shut it off.
RIP Basketball.
Here, I tried to give you the ending that Nightmare SuperHighway kept from you:
Recommend: Seems like decent proof of concept. I’ll give it a soft “eh?”
Replay Percentage Chance: 4%
Time Played: 40 minutes
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