One Leaves

Amazing game for all the wrong reasons.

Ok, so I'll kick this off by saying that this is a free game worth 1000gs, no Gold account required, and you can 100% the whole thing in maybe 3 hours max. It's absolutely worth your time.

I'm really excited to write this review because this game is just... so... I don't have the words. To really explain what makes this game so terrific, I have to spoil the big twist. So if you haven't played through One Leaves yet, I strongly encourage you to do so before reading any further. Read on if you want, but your first playthrough will take a maximum of 20 minutes.

So... the big twist. This whole stupid game is anti-smoking propaganda. It's amazing. You start off in a cage with a very Saw-like premise - you and 3 of your friends are trapped, and only one of you escapes alive. There's an ominous husky voice delivering you instructions, telling you you'll be trapped forever just like he was if you don't get out. The whole game is dimly-lit, really ratcheting up the tension. The level designs are amazing: an abandoned school followed by an abandoned hospital. The abandoned school is littered with broken desks, stacks of books arranged in a way that's meant to suggest something occult, and random clouds of smoke along with random areas of the building that are just on fire. The abandoned hospital has whispering voices, abandoned old medical equipment like iron longs and wheelchairs that move on their own. Flickering lights, a morgue that requires you to climb into the body storage lockers, and unexplained disembodied body parts attached to the walls as if the building is alive. The creepy atmosphere is really done to perfection here. And finally, you encounter the sewer level. Less creepy overall, but so much more tension. Hallways blocked by veins and arteries, random teeth and diseased mouths, cryptic messages written on the wall (which actually aren't cryptic at all once you know the twist), and tense music playing throughout that just really makes the urgency of the situation shine through. You spend the whole time wondering what kind of demon or creature is about to jump out at you, and then you finally reach the end.

That's when you find out that it's a metaphor for smoking, this game was literally produced by the "Know the Risks" group. And suddenly you understand all of the symbolism. It's so... dumb... That's why there were lungs, that's why there were clouds of smoke, that's why the guy guiding you says only 1 in 4 get out, that's what "there is no good tobacco" meant... And the achievements... "You'll be back" for finding the smoker's lounge, finding a body bag gets you an achievement whose description is "found the ex-smoker." All the messages are SO heavy-handed, this is legitimately the dumbest game I've played in a long time, and it's so dumb that it's amazing. Like... bad movie night kind of amazing. It's the best.

Truly though, I hope the person who designed this goes on to make a real game. He really nailed the creepy atmosphere. In that regard, this game truly IS good. Before I knew it was all propaganda, I thought I was sitting down for an actual horror game which was very well done. Obviously that's not what I got, but I think the person who did this game is capable of something special.

So that all being said, definitely download and play this game. Its stupidity is glorious to behold, it's free, and it's an easy 1000gs.
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