To play a game with zero knowledge of what to expect can be risky. If you’re not enjoying yourself after a few minutes, you won’t give it any more of your time. I was willing to risk jumping into “and Roger” because of all the hype around the game. It doesn’t hurt that this is a short experience, lasting about an hour. Other than that, I knew nothing. So, while it was a risk, I ended up experiencing an interesting story with an incredible way to tell it.
The less you know, the better
I’ve used the term “the less you know, the better” to describe many games in the past. But that rings true with “and Roger”. The story is vague in the beginning. As you make your way through the story, you will understand a lot more.
The game is an interactive story, played with a mouse. Because of my lack of knowledge, I began playing the game on a Steam Deck. There is no controller support, so you need to use the handheld’s haptic mousepads to move the cursor. You then use the right analog stick to lick on the actions.
The actions are like quick-time events, without worrying about how fast you respond. You will click on an object in the environment and interact with it. In some cases, you might have to move a ball around the screen. In other situations, you might have to tap them in a specific sequence for the character to act.
Interesting way to tell a story
The game uses these sections in incredible ways. When our character becomes frustrated, the screen begins to fill up with those balls. This forces you to ‘fight’ your way through it. In another sequence, you have to move the ball through a maze. Touch the sides and you restart. With the touchpad, I found these a bit harder to pull off. If I had a mouse, they would be much easier.
But there are also a few sections where how you interact with the story on the screen leads you to the next sequence. There is one moment late in the game where your character is walking. You’re controlling her movements. You’re moving right when it feels like something is wrong since nothing is changing. Because I was curious if I was doing something wrong, I started to rewind my character. This ‘discovery’ opened the next sequence. It’s not clear that you have to do that. By that point in the story, I knew to expect that I needed to do something different.
There are a few of those moments in the game. They aren’t that clear at first, but as you learn more about the story, it begins to make sense. It’s hard to praise aspects of this game without going into story-specifics. While I am explaining what you’re doing in these parts of the game, I’m making sure not to reveal too much.
Yes, this only takes an hour
The big selling point for “and Roger” is the fact that this game only takes about an hour to complete. The story has three chapters. There are parts of the game that feel like there might be branching points. But those choices feel like they still result in the same follow-up sequence.
At the same time, I’m not sure if people will want to play this a second or third time. The impact here is seeing the story unfold and us learning more about the characters. One thing I must stress is that it is best to give this game your full attention from start to finish. I played this over two evenings, and I don’t think it’s the best option.
The game does allow you to take a break between chapters, but you lose the impact of the story when you do that. This has a proper start, middle, and finish. There are parts of the first chapter that make more sense when you reach the game’s final chapter. Yes, the themes of the game still left an impression on me. They would have been even more impactful in one continuous experience.
Curious if there are more games like this
For what this is, I did enjoy “and Roger” a lot. It’s more than a visual novel. I enjoyed the action sequences. I’m interested in seeing if this studio has more games like this or if there are similar titles to explore. At the same time, I can see that the subject matter might not be for everyone. It’s not a tear-jerker. But I can see people being uncomfortable with the situations this covers. It’s not ‘triggering’, but it’s nonetheless stressful if you know people like this.
