Review - Three Twenty One
Three Twenty One is a game that seemed as though it should be a good idea. Having puzzles divided between in-game computers and a fully explorable environment is an interesting concept. However, this game failed on most fronts due to a combination of obtuse puzzles and frustrating controls. Let’s dig into that statement a bit more.
First and foremost, we have to talk about the gameplay. it is divided into two categories: the exploration and the mini-games. The exploration is where the player is playing a first person, pseudo point-and-click adventure game. All of the controls are the WASD keys and the left and right mouse button. The problem with this system is how the player interacts with objects. In order to do anything, the player must first zoom in on an object with the right mouse button. If the object is viewable, then the camera will snap onto that object. From there there is the possibility for interaction either by simply pressing the left mouse button or engaging with the mini-game. This system was a terrible design decision. Most of my playtime was spent trying to figure out which items I could zoom in on. This was made more difficult by the fact that there was very little leeway about when you were looking at an item and when you weren’t. A simple cursor and left mouse button system, like is seen in almost every other first person game, would have been much simpler and far less frustrating for the player. Whilst I applaud the fact that the developers of Three Twenty One wanted to try a new system, what they went with is a very obviously flawed approach.
In terms of the mini-games, it is completely dependent on the game in question. Some will give the player controls while others will require the player to guess at what they are supposed to do. While the controls were often quite simple on the games, figuring out what to do was very difficult. The first text-adventure, for instance, gives very little indication as to it’s goal (I only figured it out by finding a guide) and it fails to give the player the tools necessary to succeed. Particularly, every text adventure has a set of verbs that are commands within the game. Some are simple like “go” or “look”, but commands like “get” or “use” tend to vary between games. Normally, this is no problem as one can type “help” to get a list of commands, but not in this game. Really, every mini-game I played needed a lot more polishing in and of itself to give the player a better idea of how to interact with the systems and what needed to be accomplished.
The biggest problem that I have with this game is a lack of direction. It’s fine, and usually quite fun, to have the player dropped suddenly into an environment without knowing what they should be doing. However, in order for that to work there must be a grand goal or numerous smaller goals presented for the player to work towards. There must be something to motivate the player and at least a vision of a path to get there. Three Twenty One doesn’t give the player either of these. After about two hours of gameplay I was left with nothing to work towards and, thereby, no reasonable path to the goal. Every puzzle seemed to try to place the player into an unknown situation with a lack of direction, and that can only sustained for a very short time, especially with the weak mini-games.
The game is fundamentally a puzzle game, so there have to at least be interesting puzzles, right? Not really. Every puzzle I ran into lacked direction and any sense of a goal. I basically floundered around, randomly acting until I found the solution. I think that this occurred for two reasons. One was the the mini-games that were integral to the puzzles didn’t give enough indication as to their goals. However, it seems an equal part that the puzzles never built on each other. Everything that I did in the game was different from what came before. While this gives the game variety, it doesn’t allow the player to learn from past experiences. Neither expertise nor the knowledge of previous puzzle’s goals ever helped further down the road. Had the puzzles built on one another then the success of one puzzle could have, at least, informed the goal of the next. Instead, the player just has to hope that they can figure out what needs to be done.
The narrative was also lacking from my perspective. On the front of it, it appears to be a story about a child who is probably ill, as the setting is a hospital. However, I didn’t complete the game as it ended up being so frustrating that I quit. However, I will say that the initial portions of the game don’t give enough story to pull the player in. There are tid-bits here and there and some rather general exposition at times, but it didn’t pull me in. Once the mystery of having been dropped into a strange place wore off, there wasn’t much more to bite onto.
What really worked was the idea behind the game. I was certainly interested to see a game that combined in-game computer play with the greater gaming world. Combining that with an almost Evoland-esc progression through adventure gamings history has great potential. It was the execution that really failed here. With a combination of more straightforward controls, less obtuse puzzles, and more interplay between the mini-games and the rest of the world, this idea could be turned into quite a nice game.
Overall, Three Twenty One is not a game that I would ever recommend. A strange and often frustrating control scheme mixed with the obtuse puzzles ends up being a frustrating experience. While the underlying concept is good, nothing in the game is particularly well executed. The narrative is scant and didn't build into anything interesting before I put down the game in frustration. Even for free, you should pass this one by. It is not a good experience at all.
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