ayuki (2014-05-31 12:09:21)

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I'm not gonna lie here. STEINS;GATE is one of the most interesting and perplexing visual novels, one of which it feeds you through a story that you can get tons of endings, by using the main in-game mechanic, the mobile phone. It's one of my all-time favourite video games, (if you can even call it that) and I like the entire story, yet was dissatisfied with how fast one can get all endings, and the fact that your mobile phone operates the ways you can get endings, in which you can screw up a lot, if you're like: "Sod it, I don't want to ruin [insert character name here]s [insert valid word here.]"

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Gameplay: 6.5/10

The gameplay and the way that the game works is WAY TOO SIMPLE. Constant left clicks and not-so-often P presses (or whichever controls you use, there are several damned ways to bring up the phone) will be sacrificed in order to get through the story. Anyways, on the topic of left clicks, this doesn't really have the best style of gameplay. Left click. Japanese actor speaking. Text box. Etc, etc. Progressing through the story can drag on, but if you can get through the boring bits, you can get to the scientific, jellylike (oh boy references, here we go), decent parts. What disappoints me though, is how long it drags on, how easy it is to screw up the ending you want,

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Audio: 08/10

The music in STEINS;GATE is brilliant. It fits the moods in each scene very well, for instance: Okabe time travels and notices that everyone in the area vanished = Gate of Steiner starts playing. (ost song) It has a very short OST (I THINK) and most of the songs are used quite a lot, over and over. That is what stopped me from giving the audio a solid 10, despite how well made it was and how the songs gave off an atmospheric feeling.
The voice acting is well..very hard to rate because I can only read Japanese, and the version of the game I played had English translated subtitles which ACTUALLY weren't bad. Anyways, all. I can say is that the voice acting SOUNDS like the characters are feeling the way they are in the situation, and that the voice actors also fit well with the characters.

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Controls: I can hardly rate this

As STEINS;GATE is a visual novel, there pretty much are NO controls. Left click travels through the text, right click brings up the pause menu (as ESC is Exit Game), and P is to bring up the mobile phone, which I've hardly mentioned.

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In conclusion:
08/10
STEINS;GATE is a well crafted game, which in my opinion has a very safe spot in my heart.

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