#tape window

Following Kon - not their real name - you oversea the smooth running of a project started months prior. Due to the significance of the event, the first ever screening of an AI generated movie, it is of the upmost importance things go the way they should. One small mistake and it will mean the end of the team. Things often go haywire on sabotage missions, and it is never when you think it might...

While the entry might seem to follow tropes of sabotage missions, delivering the tension at every turn, having the blasé handler, or things not going quite as planned, it is not much of the story or the meme that is most noteworthy, but the messages behind it. It should not be this surprising, with the author's other games often having quite a bit to say or critique about the state of things.

In the past years, there have been increasing talk about Artificial Intelligence and its use in different industry. Recently (as of this review), it has been found that Entertainment Companies have been looking into rendering the likeness of background actors and using AIs to render them in the final project (without needing them on set). The use of AI software to render text or visuals is becoming more common, even going as a replacement for employees. It feels a bit hard to remove this topical aspect from the story of this game: an AI has written this movie, an AI is controlling the likeness of a (probably) dead Martin Scorcese...

The onus is not really put on the AI here - it is just a tool (and not a reliable or great one at that, if the comments about the movie are to be trusted*). The game takes a hit at the companies behind it, the ones using the tool, the ones actually profiting in this endeavour. *or that could just be making fun of the meme, whose lore is often contradictory.

In-game, the rules around AI use regarding using the likeness of someone cannot be done without their consent, a fair system... if it wasn't an op-out one. The rules don't seem to apply to people who died before the system was put in place - ruling impending - which explains the presence of a holographic Martin Scorcese at the premiere. Still, you have a sense that regardless of the legality of the tool, those company would try to find a way to use it anyway...

The criticism goes even clearer with the reveal of the activists' manifesto: the technological advancement is not the problem, capital endeavours are - butchering, making almost a mockery of creativity with their generated "work".

On the other hand, the game does not shy away from critiquing the actions of the activist group, showing that the sabotage of the premiere would not only shed more light on the movie, but ensuring its popularity at the box office - people who might not have cared about would come in flock out of spite. Activism is hard: there is no one way of doing things, actions can backfire, and you could be going against organism so large your actions might not even make waves or get you quite a bit of retaliation. Replaying the game to see the different option of that choice may hammer on this aspect...

Above a usually animated background, dialog boxes pop up on the screen, typing out descriptions of the scene or the dialogue between characters. Locations, time and present actors are visualised through small screenshots - the character sprites do not change from scene to scenes, so it is easy to recognise who is who. Depending on your setup, the animated background and text may lag.

A few scenes in, you get the sense that something is not quite right. Maybe it is because each scenes have very few words, or because they lack connection between each other. Their succession from the listed menu makes sense, but it is clear there are gaps between each scene. Or it could simply be the game trying to send you off track, like any good intrigue movie: nothing is truly as it seems.

While the end scene is quite something, the truly interesting part of the game, in my opinion, is when the credits roll. We sort of leave the realm of the movie and the canon, to have a more... meta discussion. Some criticism mentioned above, as well as potential failings of both the game itself and the meme at large, are discussed through two viewers of the movie you just experienced through the scenes. These criticism, from the lack of coherence to the missing actions, are linked to discourse that happened around the meme (though in-game, the discourse is about the movie).