You Should Play: Subsurface Circular

You Should Play is a rarely posted column that aims to inform you, the loyal reader why you should play a given game. It’s not a review and shouldn’t be taken as such. It is however, likely to be factually incorrect, poorly worded and potentially damaging to both you the reader, and the author.

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Vital Statistics

• Name: Subsurface Circular
• Platform: PC
• Genre: Text Adventure
• Price: They’re Practically Giving it Away (Sub £10)

The Pre-amble

I wasn’t expecting latest game from the people who brought you both Thomas Was Alone and Volume to come out as quietly as it did, releasing to everyone’s surprise last Wednesday without any fan fare or advanced marketing. Thankfully I think that’s got more to do with the type of game it is than the games overall quality.

You see, Subsurface Circular is very much a text adventure/visual novel. You play as a robot ‘tek’ detective who’s out to solve crime. You do this by conversing with the cities inhabitants whilst they go about their daily ‘lives’ on the cities tube network. You start the game sitting down, and you end it sitting down. There’s some light decision-making along the way, but that’s really about it.

Why Should You Play It?

It’s become evident to me in recent years that some of my favourite moments in film and television come when characters just talk. It’s why 12 Angry Men and Glengarry Glen Ross are two of my favourite films. It’s why Game of Thrones is so successful and why I think we’re slowly starting to see an uptake in the number of visual novels making it big in the gaming world.

Subsurface is a visual novel.  As such, don’t expect to be climbing buildings, shooting aliens or moving to the next waypoint. You’ll spend 100% of your time reading, deciphering and ultimately trying to solve the case of a missing ‘Tek’.

And without spoiling too much of the plot, what starts out as a fairly small story twists and turns until you’re making choices that (for me at least) asked some very large, very important moral questions about Humanity and our role in the world.

For a good few minutes me and my girlfriend debated the choice the game leaves you with before I ultimately made my final decision. And that’s why I think this is a game worthy of your attention.

In conclusion

I’ll be honest, I’m struggling with talking about the games true selling point; it’s story, without ruining it for you. So I’ll say this. If you enjoy spending a few hours reading, or even just thinking about what the future holds for human kind, maybe this game is for you.

It doesn’t linger, it’s not overly expensive and it’s the sort of game I’d love to see more of in the future. I think you should play Subsurface Circular