Office Aberrations is a sophisticated spot-the-difference game taking place in liminal spaces. It’s a lot of fun and a great way to exercise your brain, too!
The Backstory of Office Aberrations
Office Aberrations began in an elevator where a narrator welcomed me to AOK Labs. He told me that they were testing the cognitive effects of temporal displacement on human consciousness. In other words, I was playing a very sophisticated spot-the-difference game! I was then given a quick walk-through of the gameplay and told that if I wanted a more in-depth explanation, there was a full tutorial. I chose to try the full tutorial, which was very thorough.
Also in the settings, I chose to have hints, and I’m glad I did! They weren’t actual “in-game” hints, but after I failed a floor, the narrator would tell me what I missed. I filed that information away for future levels and appreciated the opportunity to choose that option.
The Gameplay of Office Aberrations
Office Aberrations is a hyper-realistic 3D game utilizing liminal spaces. The first floor of each game level was always the same. I would walk through that floor, notice the art on the walls, the pipes on the ceiling, the furniture – everything in that space. Then, at the end of the hall, I had a choice. I could go left if the space was “normal” or right if it was an “aberration”. I always went to the left on the first floor. That was the floor I compared all others to.
The first floor was always normal, but the next levels were up for grabs! It was a lot of fun.
Sometimes the aberration was something very minor, and not easy to notice, such as a floor covering switched from 2 small rugs to one long one. And other times, it was something crazy like the hallway had shrunk significantly. The difference could also be audible, not visible. Office Aberrations was usually played in silence, but one time there was a thunderstorm on a floor, and that floor was an aberration.
The floors of Office Aberrations were randomly generated, which kept me on my toes! After I made my choice and either went left for normal or right for an aberration, the floor doors closed behind me, and I could not go back. I had to walk a little way before I heard one of two distinctive melodies. One told me I had gotten it right, and the other meant I had not. I found I was very tense as I waited to hear which melody I would hear!! But it was a fun tension. I felt like Pavlov’s dog, trained to desire one melody!! Would I get the good melody or the bad one?
If I made the wrong choice, I was sent back to the 1st floor. The demo ended when I reached the 10th floor. I’ll tell you, I was plenty nervous when I made my choice on the 9th floor. Would I complete the demo or start all over?
Final Thoughts
Office Aberrations was a compelling challenge for me. I don’t have the best memory, so I wondered how I’d do with this demo. It turned out to be a lot more fun than I expected! It took me a full 40 minutes to reach the end, floor 10. I loved the tension as I waited to hear if I’d chosen right. The ending of the demo was a lot of fun, too. I ended the game by choosing between two elevators, one was to wishlist the game and the other was to quit. And some of the aberrations were so outrageous, I laughed out loud at them. So fun!
The demo for Office Aberrations is available on Steam. The full game has not been released yet but the Steam page says it will have harder levels than the demo did. I’m honestly not sure how I’ll do on the full game. But if you are lucky enough to have a great memory, I think you’ll really enjoy this game. It’s definitely unique!
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