Façade

In Façade, the plot does not have a straight track; instead, there are several options for the development of events and three types of endings (the couple reconciles, the couple finally breaks, you are kicked out). Characters react to every action of the player, even to a simple movement around the apartment or the direction of view. After the start of a new game, the player finds himself in the hallway of the house of the Trip and Grace family, the heated debate of the heroes and screams are well audible. The player knocks on the house, after which the scandal is interrupted, and Trip opens the door, while he behaves as if nothing had happened and tries to restrain his emotions. The protagonist’s goal is to reconcile a married couple who lived happily for a very long time until a serious scandal occurred, or, conversely, to disgrace it.

The gameplay resembles standard quests with a first-person view. The player walks around the apartment, can pick up and throw some things, draw the attention of the characters to a certain thing, apply some actions to the NPC (friendly to lightly hit, stroke, kiss on the lips). Trip and Grace, the main characters of the game, are absolutely not subject to the player, sometimes they themselves try to control the player (for example, Grace asks him to take her side in the argument). Due to the very active game characters, the basis of the gameplay is dialogs, moreover, you have to talk to both heroes at once, and if you say something very bad about one of them, he will try to drive the player out of the apartment. What is especially, replicas have to be published using the command line, that is, to compose and type on the keyboard the sentences that the player will speak.

Since the gameplay takes place without pauses, the game will sometimes play one of the many staging scenes. At the next game, the scene may already be different, and the scenario will then radically change.

• The art section of The New York Times said that “this is the future of video games” . ^[2]
• In 2006, Façade received the Grand Jury Prize at the Slamdance Independent Games Festival; Previously, the game was already among the finalists of the 2004 IGF festival. She has exhibited at a number of international art exhibitions, including ISEA 2004 with Game / Play 2006 , and has been featured on Atlantic Monthly (November 2006 ^[3] ) and Games for Windows: The Official Magazine (May 2007). ^[4] ).
• The Russian-language review site AG.ru rated the game highly at 80% (thereby adding it to the Golden Pantheon), arguing: “This time, the efforts of the developers are very noticeable, although the volume of the game and the minutes spent on the passage are completely disproportionate. At the same time, Façade cannot be considered a serious event. It can be perceived as an original experience, a leap of indefatigable design thought. And, of course, as a worthy landmark to follow. ” ^[5] . In addition, the observer, Igor Artyomov, noted artificial intelligence, the humanity of virtual heroes and the way of talking.