The Mind’s Eclipse
The CORE, a private research station, 2352. Celebrity scientist Jonathan Campbell awakens to this fallen utopia and must search for his loved ones – with the help of L, a mysterious companion.
The Mind’s Eclipse is a science-fiction visual novel featuring hand-drawn scenes in black and white, and emotional narrative-driven gameplay. Players will uncover the mystery of the Eclipse and its side-narratives by exploring, searching through logs and journals, and piecing together what happened to the CORE whilst searching for Jonathan’s family.
The Game
- An interactive fiction in stark black and white, with morally gray characters
- With the help of a mysterious companion, explore a fallen utopia in search for your loved ones and uncover the mystery of the Eclipse
- Piece together what led to the CORE’s fall from journals and chat logs
- No dating? No Problem. Every environment is interactive, pulling the player into a science fiction world worth exploring
- Beware COSy
The Mind’s Eclipse is a phenomenal visual novel that’ll pull you in and quickly ensnares you in its story, full of strange characters and stranger settings. You’ll be confronted with some very heavy and at times disturbing situations surrounding the concepts of morality, immortality and technology, all conveyed spectacularly in striking black and white in a wonderfully realized world rich with history. If you are at all a fan of classic hard science fiction, this should be a “must buy” for your collection. – IndieHangover
Game Discussion
Steam User 1
What a shame that at the time of this review, the game is no longer available for sale on Steam. Looks like you can buy it on itch though, so please do so there.
This is one of my favorite walking sims/visual novels of the past few years. Super well-written and interesting sci-fi story and characters. Multiple times while reading an email/text log/dialogue, I actually had to stop and ponder my own thoughts on the subject. Not many games ever compel me to do that.
Steam User 0
Sad that you cannot support the dev on the steam platform. You can however support them on itchio.
Amazing story if you care a bit about reading and you like a grim story that balances the idea of what is humanity, a soul and how to process loss then this one is for you!
Steam User 1
A cute choice of words? This is a tragically gritty piece of sci-fi that is worth every 59 seconds out of 60. The story is not painfully obvious, while not forcing one to dive into every single phrase and detail to get a firm grasp of it. This game is text heavy as implied, beautifully drawn, uniquely presented and apart from some technical difficulties (the Start button starts the new game and needs a whole volley of clicks to go past. And there is no "Continue" button) can quite well be a 10/10.
Simply put, i love it.
Ever since i laid my eyes on its demo, covered by Markiplier
i wanted to get my hands on it and after these 2 years, i got to play.
I won't say much, but this is a story of a man's fanatic battle versus death,
with subtexts of betrayal, loss and death, overzealous devotion and sacrifice.
You are Johnathan Campbell, medical prophet, who basically runs a cult that believes
humans can ascend into a higher form, free of death and suffering called "The eclipse."
The myriad of textbooks collected will inform you of the key players of the game
and also provide interesting bits of story behind the world.
I do wonder how could some low-life working Joe's device has personal messages of you
and people close to you, but i'd digress.
I won't talk too much as the story is 60% of what this game offers.
The rest
is taken by the artstyle, which although simplistic and monochromic fits the settings
of a barren, dead world, with occasional gorgeous shots and emotional scenes. I'd say its simplicity does a nice job and
allows many key moments to stand out from the rest.
There is also a barely existent puzzle mechanic that most likely is trying not to make you
feel like a ghost, simply skulking through the abandoned streets, only capable of observing and processing information.
The story, again, is really well made, with some interesting ideas and a couple of very cool plot twists.
In the end
I love it, its worth it from the start to finish. I guess it slightly pricks at my hear that it follows the "Very last decision dictates the ending" trope. But you know what they say "Its the journey, not the destination."
If you're reading this far, I hope i persuaded you to give this one a shot.
Thank you
Sebastian Stag Agner
Steam User 0
Fantastic art, solid sci-fi story that keeps you engaged, but mostly just looks very very good.
Steam User 1
This is available for free on itch.io - go and download it there!
The Mind's Eclipse is an atmospheric sci-fi point-and-click VN - awakening in an abandoned city, you piece together its past from fragments of emails and logs you find, making for a highly effective mystery. The striking black-and-white artwork and electronic soundtrack really help to make this VN stand out.
Highly, highly recommended.
Steam User 0
Very good simplistic but atmospheric game.
Steam User 0
The Mind’s Eclipse is a great mix of visual novel and adventure game – it’s easy enough to follow and hard to get ‘stuck’, but it’s also got depth if you want to engage with it. There’s very few difficulty checks – no reading comprehension questions or complicated puzzles – but if you want to truly understand what’s happening, you need to pay attention. Most of the story is told through the game’s artwork and emails, and it’s up to you to piece together how different people feel about the Eclipse, and what they decide to do about it. The game’s atmosphere, set by the black and white art and soundtrack/soundscapes, is pleasant and quite varied for a short game.