Steins;Gate (PC) Review

Steins;Gate revolves around an eccentric university student by the name of Rintaro Okabe (Okarin to his friends, but desiring to be called by his pseudonym of Kyoma Hououin to match with his self-proclaimed mad scientist persona). Along with his university cohort, Itaru, and childhood friend, Mayuri, they make up the Future Gadget Laboratory, a small research institute that dabbles in creating devices that will help mankind in the long run. One day, they stumble upon time travel, using a tinkered-with microwave, and thus - following the inevitable incredulity of some at first, and subsequent excited tests after - ensues all sorts of chaotic timeline-adjusting shenanigans, culminating in an underhand organisation, SERN, tracking them down to prevent their continued work, since it also has a special time-related project in the offing, and the young group's meddling could jeopardise its plans, so they need to be stopped in any way necessary.

With this being a visual novel, it does not play out like other regular gameplay-filled genre titles in the videogame world. Instead, it is indeed what it says on the tin - a book in illustrative format, and in the VN scene that generally means the only interaction is to click next to carry on the conversations or reveal more descriptive text.

The beauty of Steins;Gate, though, is that not only does its narrative exposition excel, drawing people into the tale to make them feel a part of the universe - even as if they are actually in Okabe's shoes and facing the increasing struggles and moral dilemmas he needs to deal with for the duration of the tale - it adds more interactivity than expected. Getting to know the numerous characters is an absolute joy thanks to sublime writing and fantastic voice acting, but those not always exactly enamoured by visual novels should know that there is the lure of their choices (answer or ignore specific phone calls, give different responses to email exchanges) really having a heavy impact on what ending is received at the game's conclusion.

Although obviously it is the majority of the experience, this is definitely not merely a sit back and read experience. It actually tries hard to encourage those at the helm to pay attention and get involved at the appropriate time, without breaking the atmosphere by interjecting too often. It even comes with a handy encyclopaedia for those that want to get the most out of the prose, learning more about the core topics discussed by the cast - be they fictional topics/names or instances of real life places/people/subjects sourced for the purposes of adding weight to the rest of the story. Certain words or phrases will be highlighted in the on-screen text, and they can either be clicked on directly or scrutinised at a later point. Overall, the exemplary writing and audio performances, supported by beautifully drawn portraits of the cast and locales visited, all make for one of the most engrossing journeys in the genre; unmissable for fans of visual novels and great stories alike.