1. I meant to play Subsurface Circular and Quarantine Circular in the order they were produced but screwed up and played Subsurface second. Doing this made it feel like all it did was lay the groundwork for the type of narrative presentation that made Quarantine Circular so great. I dunno, if you just wanted to know which game is better, it's Quarantine Circular. No need to read the rest of this review.
2. Subsurface Circular is a text based adventure w/ a graphical presentation. That might sound weird but it works naturally in reality. The graphics just reinforce what is written.
3. The setup is you are a government employed private detective who stumbles on a missing persons case while chatting up people on a train, the titular Subsurface Circular. You take this up on your own accord even though you aren't supposed to. The twist is you, everyone you talk to and the missing persons are all ro-bots.
4. The story is told through a series of conversations your character has w/ various ro-bots who fortuitously filter through the train car you are on and apparently stuck in. You talk to each of these and, from them, you begin to form a cohesive picture of the world you are living in.
5. Your only means of interacting w/ the game is from choosing what you say next from a list of options during these conversations. You are a detective so this makes perfect sense. You goal is to collect information.
6. The variety of characters who happen to get on your car and talk to you prove to be a very fortuitous mix of different ro-bot types. From them, you learn of the various relations ro-bots have to humans. How, in you area, ro-bots are all nominally free but that just means they are all under compulsory government service while in some places ro-bots are still owned by private citizens or completely autonomous.
7. As per speculative fiction's Grand Constitution and Bylaws article 57 section D, because
there are ro-bots in Subsurface Circular, Asimov's Three Laws of Ro-botics must be
brought up even though they have no bearing on how ro-bots are actually
built now and there's no reason to suspect they will play into how
ro-bots will be built in the future.
8. There are also references to some of Bithell's other games which were not overdone and definitely put a smile on my face when I ran into them.
9. Unlike Quarantine Circular, Subsurface Circular is from a single character's perspective. This could be said to arguably give the game more focus but in equal measure it limits the storytelling potential.
10. Similarly, Subsurface does not quite give you the same sense of agency as its successor. When you are conversing w/ the various NPCs, you can normally find a question or response that suits you but you never really get the feeling you are having too much of an effect on how the story actually plays out. The conversations might be different but the world remains the same.
11. There is one major choice you do make and the game makes it obvious when this is. Your decision has broad implications in terms of human/ro-bot civilization that are uncertain and nuanced whichever way you decide to go.
12. If you are curious about the Circular games, you can't go wrong w/ either. I recommend Subsurface to be played first because after Quarantine, it just seems a bit simplistic in comparison.This understandable as Subsurface came first but even if it is a bit overshadowed by its sequel, it still stands as a great game on its own. If you are into text adventures or ro-bots, it is definitely something that's not to be missed.
13. Yes, I find it endlessly hilarious to spell it "ro-bot" over and over. Yes, I do realize it's only funny to me. No, I am not going to stop.
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