Anica is a very short dystopian sci-fi adventure game, featuring minimalist graphics and music and some interesting concepts. I was particularly fond of the music which features a decent amount of tracks that help create a cool atmosphere for the game. The graphics, while serviceable, can sometimes be a bit confusing to look at. I get that it is going for an abstract approach, but I felt that sometimes it ended up being a jumble of scribbles rather than an interesting juxtaposition of lines. This is worst at the end of the opening cutscene where the camera focuses on an inane jumble of lines. Still, I found the starting room charming, and the bar that has an image as the floor of the building works quite well. The Hertindome also has an interesting bunch of animated color squares that I thought was a nice touch.
There are no battles to speak of in Anica, so it's just finding where to go and reading the text. I won't spoil anything of the story since it's so short, but I found the writing needlessly verbose at times, and more than a couple of times there was something written so awkwardly it broke the immersion for me. The opening cutscene comes to mind where it describes the citizens of the city as "thriving to analyze."
Still that being said this was interesting enough for me to finish it and wish that it were longer. The creator of this game clearly has an interesting vision, and I would hope that they pick this back up again at some point.
Anica Review
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