Note: This game deals with themes some may find upsetting
You wouldn't think there can be much to a game that takes place in a cell you can only move a foot in in three directions. Wertpol proves that wrong by giving us this, best described as a free indie visual novel, Presentable Liberty. You start off with no back story, and only know you are in a prison cell, trapped and locked away from the world. The only connection you have to any living person are letters that are somehow slipped under your door. There is no way for you to reply, so all you can do is click the letters to read them, and accept their gifts to you, which is done by using the number keys to select them, and then right-clicking to use. Through these letters a terrifying story unfolds, but all you can do about this is stand in your cell, watch your little pet bug run around, or play the games given to you by your Personal Buddy™ that is meant to keep you happy and non-suicidal... though the letters are really all you have left.
Obviously Presentable Liberty isn't a game for everyone, which is sad because this game is the kind of game that ends with an impact. It'll take some patience, since most of the time you're waiting for letters and only really have a few crudely made high difficulty games to play to keep you busy outside of that. If you're willing to actually get involved in the story, then those wait times become much more than simply waiting for the game to move on. This is a game that makes you face the biggest fear of all, one that in this day and age we have come up with so many distractions to avoid... being alone with your thoughts. While on the surface it seems that the message of the game is painfully obvious, past that surface is a deep, deep pool you choose to expand. The one sided letters you receive at first are nothing but mild distractions, ones you're not even sure if they are real, but after a day or so you'll cling to them, having a deep relationship with the writer you've never met and are unsure if that person being real or not even matters any more. For the best experience this game needs to be played alone, but make sure that afterwards you have someone you can go hug for a while.
Windows:
Get the free full version
Mac OS X:
Not available.
Try Boot Camp or Parallels or CrossOver Games.
Well, this was incredibly depressing.
(ending spoilers)
RIP Salvador, the best friend a man could ever ask for. You deserved better.
Did anyone happen to stay in the cell? I'm curious, but there's no way I can bring myself to play this again.
If you thought that ending was depressed
Staying in the cell is worse. You do find out why Dr. Money is trying so hard to keep you in there and alive and it ends saying that you lived so many more days before you died, never seeing another living person.
The game can't be saved, so you need a bit of time to sit down and 'play' it.
So far, I've got to about Day 3 and it has taken me about an hour.
No idea how many days it takes to get to the end of the game though.
Was he trying to keep you in there because
you have healthy organs that he can harvest?
I chose to
leave the room, then saw that Charlotte was as impatient as that guy from The Mist, dammit.
Did Mr Happy choose the same fate?
I didn't like that you basically had to have the game open with nothing else for the hour or so it took to play through. I know that's meant to be part of the storytelling process, but it's annoying.
Maybe it would have been better in small chunks, like the mobile game about the princess trapped in the castle waiting for her prince to finish his adventure and rescue her.
@Catherine
Mr. Happy sold all of the organs in his body in order to buy you the last game, as said in his final notes.
Poor guy. :[
The developer of the game is now streaming casually if anyone wants to know what is up. If you want to watch the streams find him on youtube at Wertpol Streams.
Update