Code 7: Episode 1 (PC) Review

Alex, who resides somewhere on a space station, seems to be suffering from the trope of amnesia. Episode 0, which is included for free with Episode 1, and acts as a prologue, sees her meeting with a woman named Sam who knows who Alex is. The first act will soon introduce a new comrade for Alex to interact with, but note that this won't be a face-to-face deal. Being a hacking simulator, Code 7 has Alex inputting lines of "code" in a terminal in order to make things move, with her co-op buddy being just a dot on an interface. In other words, Alex is the guy... err, gal in the chair.

Our heroine can hack terminals and manipulate the environment in order to, say, open a door, gather bits of lore from emails or documents, and many more. In essence, the player is inputting commands on a console, which follow an 'object.action' structure that's very similar to some programming languages; so, to open a door, one needs to type something like DOOR.OPEN. Oh, and, by the way, as the saying goes amongst PC nerds, "real men use the keyboard," therefore, just forget about using the mouse.

This of course means that it can sometimes feel somewhat boring to type everything. Yes, there is an auto-complete mechanic (again, like in actual programming), but it would be nice if there was a better way to do certain things with the mouse, like map navigation for instance, since there's plenty of backtracking that needs to be done... plenty of boring, boring backtracking. While definitely a flaw, however, this further emphasises the hacking sim nature of Code 7, and, as a result, raises the immersion factor.

The story, which revolves around an AI that's on its way to Earth, presumably to do something harmful, is a tad clichéd, and most will see the few twists on offer from a mile away. Fortunately, this can be quite the thrilling and atmospheric ride despite its primary text-based narrative, especially since you and your companion rely on each other to complete whatever lies ahead, something that, in essence, creates a pretty impressive connection with the characters - not to mention that, apart from the few odd and lifeless line deliveries, most of voice-overs are quite good.

There is some light branching with regard to the dialogue, but don't expect the second playthrough to be that much different than before, as crossroads just affect some specific conversations, and, frankly, only slightly. Maybe the upcoming episodes will make those choices shine a bit more, but that remains to be seen. Luckily, it's possible to just start an episode and quickly choose past steps, so that you don't have to replay a chapter - an absolute must in such titles, and something that some games, like The Council, for instance, keeps forgetting.

Generally, Code 7 offers a good, albeit, not that innovative, sci-fi thriller, and masterfully manages to make you feel as a techno-wizard, although you're just inputting simple commands. The downside to that is, as mentioned before, that everything must be typed, thus things can get a bit tedious after a while, and even cumbersome when it comes to the more action-oriented sequences, where the player has a limited amount of time to do a variety of tasks, usually in order to keep your partner alive and breathing.

As a final note, it's important to mention that, although a text-based game, this uses plenty of, almost creepy, interface distortions, static, colour shifts, and all kinds of cool stuff that increase the atmosphere quite a bit… but can be insanely tiring after a while. The good news is that these can be toggled off - although it would be preferable to be able to choose specific effects to disable, rather than shutting them off altogether. Additionally, those with severe eyesight impairments can actually turn on a descriptive mode - in other words, kudos Goodwolf Studio!