Analogue: A Hate Story (PC) Review

There is a lot to say about Analogue: A Hate Story, but where to begin? What is of highest importance to mention? It might just be simpler to start from the root and explain the setting and world. Analogue: A Hate Story takes place hundreds of years in a future where humankind has started to explore outer space in search for new colonies. One investigator has been given the mission to find an old spaceship that was destroyed centuries ago and find out about what happened to cause its sudden demise. With that, the premise is set.

The story, told through the logs within the spaceship and its computer system, is a deep and dark, yet beautiful, one about a patriarchal feudalistic dystopian society in which women were barely allowed to talk, as well as about some of the individuals within the chambers of power and all of the political intrigue between these people. It is a tale about mystery, lies, broken dreams, and hate, which is normally just found within medieval historical settings, yet it is done extremely well within this sci-fi visual novel and creates a wonderful mix between the medieval and strong emotional themes of romanticism, and the curiosity of the future and its possibilities found within modern sci-fi literature. It is not all sunshine and rainbows presented to the reader, though, yet it is hard to stop playing, even in its most upsetting moments. The instinct might be to just want to scream or cry over the horrible fate bestowed upon some of the characters, but being able to stop reading will not be possible.

The most important ingredients that make Analogue: A Hate Story into such an addictive read are the characters found within. They have depth and are very well developed, as well as very realistic. This is beautifully done by giving them a very balanced mixture of both good and bad personality traits and the author is not afraid to even put characters meant to be seen as the good ones into bad light. This all helps to make for wonderful reading, with several unexpected twists and turns.

While serious most of the time, this also doesn't take itself too seriously to the point where it grows stale, and there are several cute jokes and sequences in it that even though they might appear whimsical at first, mix into the darker nature and character development quite perfectly. Even the cosplaying part offers a lot about the main character and helps develop her. This humour helps give proceedings a distinct personality.

The way the yarn is told is very ingenious and helps keep the story on track. The story of the spacecraft, its inhabitants, and the society within, is told through ship logs that are gradually unlocked by reading and discussing the entries with the AI folk encountered. This means things do not need to be done in a chronological order, instead in whatever way works best from the storytelling perspective and in a way that makes sure that no secrets or clues are given away prematurely due to perceptual reasons. The storytelling feels natural, yet extremely well thought out at the same time, creating a flowing experience that never grows dull.

Besides making the storytelling feel more fluid, the log system also helps to cater for newcomers to the genre by always offering the possibility to easily go back and read up on information missed and, therefore, ensure that no information of importance is ever missed.

Another great aspect for fresh-faced players is the fact that it is a relatively short visual novel, no longer than six hours. Also, unlike many other high quality works within the genre, it does not require a lot of prior knowledge about a wide range of subjects to understand what is going on, which makes for a great "first visual novel" for anyone who is interested in getting into the genre without getting a dumbed-down iteration. Even though the game does not require a lot of knowledge about subjects prior to starting off, this does not stop it from discussing deep and important subjects such as politics, social injustice, philosophical questions, and even gender roles for the player to take their stance in and explore throughout. While easy, Analogue: A Hate Story does still offer everything found in most other high tier contenders within the genre and, therefore, will also appeal to veterans.