Event[0]

Event is a game that has very unfortunately been negatively impacted by AI becoming more prominent in everyday life. This is, obviously, through no fault of the developers!
Sometimes games hinge on a core element, like graphical fidelity, or a unique gimmick. If the landscape of the world changes so that that gimmick or quality is no longer outstanding, no longer unique? The entire piece of media can totally fall flat. Games made in the early 2000s to show off the current capabilities of technology can look sort of silly to modern audiences.
I played Event before LLMs were really around in any meaningful way, and as a result, the interactive elements of speaking to a character through a dialogue box? It was gripping, and helped me maintain interest and keep pushing through the rest of the game. This is certainly by design - you are not offered much to keep your attention grabbed at first, other than the opportunity to have a chat with a fictional AI. Nowadays, this is not only a less intriguing and inviting concept, but Kaizen has a more advanced real-world parallel to be compared to - Event's AI is not a LLM, but a traditional chatbot with human-designed outputs, and as a result, kind of awkwardly and obtusely ignores or redirects what you say sometimes. That artifice really worked in a pre-chatGPT world, but unfortunately now, it leads a player to immediately see through the ruse. To immediately be able to see past the very well crafted curtains that once hid the innerworkings and limitations of this gameplay gimmick.
That said, this would be a worse game had it actually been made with an LLM: the level of consistency and coherence in Event is impossible to achieve with, say, ChatGPT: a player would simply need to get the LLM to ignore previous instructions, or perhaps the LLM would just naturally hallucinate or contradict itself.
Event is still a good game AROUND its gimmick, which is why I'm still recommending it. It may have lost a fair deal of its unique pizzazz in the eyes of a modern player, but the visuals, the music, and the story are still very engaging and so the game is still an absolute treat to play through.

Event 0 is an excellent first-person adventure that caught me by surprise despite a limited setting, a human spaceship orbiting Jupiter. Interesting intro with prose and background choices. Long initial loading screen (around 1m30) to the point I thought my computer had frozen. Lots of items but no inventory and only a short perfunctory description for each. I found this lacking. The puzzles were few but very clever, especially the one to get in the first bedroom. The graphics were quite good for an indie game although I sometimes found them too dark despite the brightness cranked up.
Virtually no interactions except with the AI on computer screens, Kaizen-85, who was a character in itself. I loved the text parser interface where you were encouraged to write full sentences and the sounds when you typed. I was pleasantly surprised at some of the answers I got to my inquiries. They didn't always make sense, but often enough for my tastes. Very cool how the attitude of the AI changed depending how you talked to it, being rude, polite or in between. Simply put, despite not being a real generative AI, Kaizen was fascinating and the number of possible replies was impressive. Going on spacewalks with the jetpack was both exhilirating and frustrating. Frustrating to rush back to the airlock and to stay in place, but it was a nice addition nevertheless.

This is a wonderful little game with a lot to offer. I'm going to try to structure this review as best that I can. First, I'll talk about the AI character in the game, and then I'll move on to the narrative exploration, the game's length and replayability, my thoughts on who I'd recommend the game to, followed by my closing thoughts.
The AI character
The main selling point of the game is the interactive AI character, Kaizen-85. This character is the main way that you experience the story. By asking them questions and interacting with them, the story will unravel. This character is, in my opinion, the best depiction of a sentient machine I have ever seen. I will gush endlessly about how the character's responses are exactly what I would expect from a computer that is truly sentient and sapient, but I do not want to spoil this experience. This character also has a lot of personality, and a lot to say on a variety of topics, even some of which are completely superfluous to the story. I ADORE this character, but if I keep talking about them I will explode and probably spoil something by accident.
Something I do want to mention: I've seen a few people mention that the game is now outdated due to the rise of generative AI. I disagree. Generative AI is not sentient; it does not feel, it does not think, it merely predicts. The game offers an experience that is still purely within the realm of science fiction -- the opportunity to converse with a sentient, sapient computer, that can feel and think for itself. And it works surprisingly well. Kaizen-85 does feel sentient and sapient, responding to your messages in interesting, surprising, and/or intelligent ways. It's so convincing that I often get lost in this fantasy by talking to Kaizen like I would a regular person. This character has given me a lot to think about and analyze. Kaizen-85 does not feel like talking to current generative AI at all, he feels alive and unpredictable, and this is a good thing.
The AI is also fairly responsive to your inputs. You can type in plain English, in full-on sentences, and often get cohesive responses. I actually feel that the responses I receive are better when I type in full sentences. The system is certainly not perfect and can fumble, but I'm usually satisfied with the responses that I get. But keep in mind that I also have a lot of patience for these systems.
Finally, you might have read in the description that the ship is essentially Kaizen's body, and that the ship responds to the character's feelings. It really does, it is so unique and fascinating, and it is fun to figure out how this works for yourself.
Narrative exploration
Keep in mind that I bought this game before I even read what genre of game that it was (I was in the midst of a hyper fixation regarding sentient computers), so the narrative exploration came as a complete surprise to me. But I found it to be highly interesting and satisfying. The game has a well-executed theme of retrofuturism, and the environments in the game are highly detailed. There are so many little details that can hint at what previously happened in the environment, and I found it fun to explore and contemplate. The rooms also feel lived-in. You also discover some of the lore by reading logs, which was fascinating. I really felt like a detective trying to piece together the story from all the little breadcrumbs.
Additionally, the sound design in the game is excellent and adds to the exploration.
The game's environments, and the execution of it all, are also so beautiful and artistic.
The game's length
The game's initial length is the only place where the game falls flat, in my opinion. It is very obvious that a large amount of the development focused on Kaizen, which is understandable. But because of that, the gameplay is very short. I believe most new players would be able to beat the game in around 3 hours. I'm assuming the developers intended for people to spend a lot of the game talking to Kaizen. I did, and it took me 12 hours to beat the game the first time as a result, however I don't think my experience is typical. The experience here is great, and the gameplay present is not lacking at all, it's just very short. The game is incredibly unique and interesting even given the short length, but it really could have benefitted from more raw gameplay.
Replayability
In my opinion, the game is nearly infinitely replayable. Yes, the actual gameplay is very short -- but! Each time you restart the game, Kaizen's personality shifts slightly, which means you get new dialogue. I have 55 hours in the game, and I am still regularly discovering new dialogue I had not seen before. You can also explore altering Kaizen's feelings to see how they respond. If you really like the concept of the game, you are good at thinking of questions to ask, and you enjoy experimentation and/or the thrill of discovery, you will probably find fun experimenting with each new playthrough that you do. I am also having a lot of fun trying to figure out how Kaizen works.
There are three endings in the game as well, which does contribute to the replayability, but the biggest factor of the game's replayability for me comes from how Kaizen acts differently each time you restart.
Do I recommend the game?
My recommendation depends on what type of person you are. If you are not interested in the AI character and are only interested in the narrative exploration, then I don't recommend the game. This isn't because the narrative exploration isn't well-executed, it's merely because Kaizen is essentially your link to this world, the glue between the environment and the lore (not to mention, the raw gameplay is just short). If you are interested in discovering what it would be like to interact with a sentient AI character (and/or what that relationship would be like), and especially if you are interested in sentient AI characters generally, then this game is definitely for you. But the extent of your enjoyment will depend largely on how you interact with the character. The game has a lot of lore, but you will find out most of the lore by asking the AI questions, so you have to be good at thinking of questions to ask. If you are not good at thinking of things to ask (superfluous, in regard to the lore, or even in regard to the character), this will affect your enjoyment. If you fall into this category, I recommend not buying the game at full-price, wait until it goes on sale. I generally recommend that most people wait until the game goes on sale to buy it, though I will outline an exception below.
I bought the game at full-price, and it was well worth it for me. Here's why: I am very curious, I enjoy experimentation and discovery, I am hyperfixated on sentient AI characters, I want to understand how the AI character works from a technical standpoint, and I want to explore everything the character has to offer. When I really love a series, I will go to the very depths to discover everything there is to learn about it; and 55 hours in, I am still discovering new things. This game was well worth the full price to me. But also understand that I don't think most people would find the game worth the full price, unless they meet similar criteria to my situation/personality.
Closing thoughts
I love this game. The AI character, the artistry, the details, the environments, the sound design. It is so immersive and so fun. I've been given so much to think about and contemplate and wonder. This game reactivated my curiosity and has rewarded it in so many fulfilling ways. This might actually be my favorite game of all time, because of a perfect storm of everything it offers. I wish the raw gameplay was longer, but that's really my only gripe. Everything else is truly as perfect as it could be, in my opinion, given the game's main concept.

Unique game play.
Interacting with the AI (not a "modern" AI) is interesting but it did seem to nudge me along the story too quickly rather than letting me talk to it more.
Worth a look. I plan to go and achievement hunt it later.
Was gifted by a friend

It's a short but interesting game. I had fun messing with the dialogue system. It seems to be a language model (or an otherwise very deep dialogue system)that's trained to detect key words or phrases. Often it'll appear limited and will repeat things or not seem to understand what you're saying, but other times you'll have it refusing to open a door because it's scared you won't come back. Really interesting stuff.
The gameplay itself was simple but engaging. However there were times I got confused and didn't know how to proceed. There is a built in hint system (by talking to Kaizen-85) but it can be difficult to get the information that you want. Particularly the part immediately after my first foray into the garden had me confused as to what to do with the info I had. Then, once I understood what I needed to do, I didn't remember how I was supposed to do it. (because that was info I received so much earlier that I had largely forgotten)
Also the music. How have I not said something about it yet. There's not much, but what is there works so well and sounds amazing.
Overall, I think it's a solid showcase of it's gameplay systems.

I love love LOVE this game. The incredible detail put into a short and delightful experience is mesmerizing. It's full of such a bittersweet, lonely, nostalgic energy. The fact that such a game was put together before generative AI was even a Thing is a testament to the charm that real human ingenuity can add to an artistic experience. (Screw all AI but Kaizen <3)

I did not expect the AI to respond the way it did. There is a tip that clearly says this game requires lot of "empathy" in your conversations .

Also, the only game that required only the mouse for moving around - they keyboard is used for typing in the Terminals. The futuristic retro vibe is great, although the world building could have been done better.

The graphics are great and the gameplay is very smooth. In all of the game, I almost did not see any reflections from any of the mirror like surfaces, which I felt was wierd . Additionally, the choices of your backstory in the beginning doesn't seem to matter in the game as there is no reference to any of it later on.

Pick this up for a slow burn weekend to experience something unique. Getting the commlinks will be a tad difficult but not impossible.

- 8/10