Impostor Factory PC Review

We all know and love high-budget triple-A games; it is almost impossible to get tired of them. But for nearly all of us, there is that one hidden indie gem that we find ourselves yearning for every once in a while. Freebird Games’ visual novel To The Moon certainly earned the right to be one of our favorites as far as indie gems are concerned. Then, the second game came out: Finding Paradise. There is nothing more to say except that we loved it. Freebird Games did not stop there, though; they signaled (within the game, in fact) that there were plans for a new game to come out. And soon enough, in late 2021, we finally received the latest installment of To The Moon series! This new game, namely Impostor Factory, is nothing short of its predecessors. Just like Finding Paradise and To The Moon, Impostor Factory is a unique experience.

 

Impostor Factory is a direct sequel to the two games that came out before it. This means that it centers around the same characters of the previous games, the two doctors who travel within the mind of the patient to change their memories, and turn them into whatever they wished them to be while they were alive. This makes them die a happy death, so to speak. Although it is apparent that the game is a direct sequel, it has very distinct qualities that set it apart from the other games. We’ll talk about these later on, but now, let’s start from the very beginning.

Impostor Factory starts in medias res, that is, in the middle of a story that has already started playing. The players do not know precisely what is going on. They are merely thrown into an already existing story and are expected to put the pieces together slowly. The game promises a story that will hook the player in from the very beginning, and it most certainly delivers. The story indeed unravels slowly, but it is by no means boring: Impostor Factory is a supernatural murder mystery at its core, and there is almost no universe where such a story may be rendered tedious. One could even say that it is, in Freudian terms, uncanny. But interestingly, of course.

 

But what good is a story without the other aspects that support it? Well, the game delivers much more than just a murder mystery. For a mechanically simple pixel-art game, it is also undeniable that Impostor Factory goes above and beyond in all aspects. The graphics are as great as this game could have been, the music is incredibly moving, and the dialogues feel natural and plentiful.

The gameplay is, as expected, quite simple. Just like its predecessors, it is a visual novel at heart. So there is not much to expect in that sense. Albeit a visual novel, the game holds so much creativity within it to behold. This creativity largely comes from the developers’ decision to stray away from the previous games. Let me explain what I mean.

Unlike its predecessors, the game does not let the player wander around as the doctor. There is, instead, a (very lovable, may I add) boy called Quincy. So even if the main characters are not really main characters here, they are still very much connected to the story that they still feel like main characters. Establishing such a deep bond between the characters, the game itself, and the player is a video game magic that I still do not understand, but believe me when I say the characters become your friends by the end of this game. There are so many emotional twists and turns, but in the end, they are more than a fading memory. They become a part of you, and you want more from them.

 

In order not to feel let down because of the fact that this game is not the same as the previous games, let me elaborate on what I mean. Though the game borrows so much from To The Moon and Finding Paradise, there are certain aspects in which it differs. For instance, the screen time of the main characters being so little makes the game a different type of experience- It almost removes the borders between the patient and the player. This may or may not be the actual purpose of this character shift, but that is how it feels. The frame-narrative style that became a significant aspect of the previous games is almost completely gone, which significantly changes the experience.

When there is an actual commentary from the two doctors, the players are located outside of the game; they are merely watching these two doctors go through the memories of a patient. But when the screen-time of the doctors is reduced, this commentary eventually disappears, and the players are left to make their commentary as they move along the story. This means that the players are closer to the game rather than outside its boundaries. In conclusion, the player is much more active than passive here, which drastically changes how the experience moves the player.

This is what I meant by this cryptic expression of “deep bond between the characters, the game, and the player” the player is closer to the game, and therefore the characters are and more intimate. But this means that the main (doctor) characters have to take a step back to let the player come closer.

 

Whether or not this is a pleasant change, I cannot say for certain, but for me, it felt like a breath of fresh air. As someone who loves To The Moon to death, I do not think I can have an experience like that again. And this is fine- some things are better left untouched. I appreciate the developers for improving upon it, instead of trying to recreate the same experience.

In short, Impostor Factory is a memorable experience that makes the player go through a series of emotions. The story is interesting, the characters are charming, and the gameplay mechanics are simple as they can be. It could be said that the game is, in fact, different than what we are used to from Freebird Games, but it is a fresh change regardless. If you loved To The Moon, you’d love Finding Paradise, and you will most certainly enjoy Impostor Factory as well. Isn’t it incredible to see how many emotions can fit into only a few pixels!

Yagmur Sevinc (@yagmursevvinc)
Editor, NoobFeed