Writings of Mass Deduction

I’m purchasing an Xbox Live Indie Game every day, seeking out the quality titles that got lost in the shuffle and no longer appear in the top 50 downloads. Today is day #106, and today’s game is “Decay – Part 3”.

I’m a big fan of the Decay series of games, having played “Decay – Part 1” back on Day 34, and “Decay – Part 2” back on Day 72. It seems like I get the itch to play a new Decay game every 35 days or thereabouts, and Decay – Part 4 is reportedly deep in development so hopefully it’ll be available within that timeframe.

I’ve described these games in the past as Myst meets Silent Hill, and that continues in Decay – Part 3. It’s hard to review without giving too much away, as this is a game where the first play through may be your only one (after you’ve solved all the puzzles, the impetus to go back and solve them again is low, unless you want to do a speed run). It’s a point-and-click adventure horror where you have to explore your environment to solve puzzles and uncover the mystery of how it is that you woke up in a bathroom, not remembering your name, apparently having (successfully?) hung yourself with a noose. I will say this though, you do travel back to areas covered in Decay – Part 1 in an attempt to uncover parts of the mystery… is it possible you missed something the first time through?

This series is episodic gaming done right: inexpensive price points, and an amount of content that feels about right for the cost, and for the delay between installments. Most episodic series are either too short for their price, or have installments that either don’t come out frequently enough or consistently enough to maintain fan interest. Most developers doing episodic series could learn a lot from the Decay series. This is the best installment in the Decay series yet in my opinion, and it only costs 240 Microsoft Points.

If you’re new to the Decay series, part 1 costs only 80 Microsoft Points (the smart people at Shining Gate Software know that by hooking you with the $1 first installment, you’ll be all too eager to come back to pay $3 for each of the second two) and is available through the Decay Part 1 review linked above.

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