Replayability is one of the review criteria often used to break down a video game’s worth. Plunking down 50 bucks makes one hope for a lasting experience. This Week’s Waste of Time can only be played once. Lucky for you, it’s free.
The aptly titled One Chance puts you in control of John Pilgrim who has just discovered the cure for cancer. Things go awry (duh), and it turns out our protagonist only has six days before all of humanity is obliterated. Do you spend that time working on a cure or with your family? What are the consequences of those choices? Whatever you decide to do, you only get one shot at it. The end of the sixth day is the end of the game. There’s no starting over or trying again to see what the other endings are. When I try to play the game again all I see is an empty park.
The game purposefully looks a lot like Molleindustria‘s Every Day the Same Dream and has the same atmosphere of impending doom. What makes One Chance unique is that it feels more like an event than a quick game. Knowing very little about the game going into it other than that I could only play it once, I made sure I had an uninterrupted hour to play and that I wouldn’t be disturbed. Every choice I made was thought out. Similar “tough decision” games like Fable III try to make the decisions difficult and have consequences but in the back of the player’s mind there is the knowledge that you can always try again. Granted, you can switch to a coworker’s computer if you’re dying to know all the possible endings, although I question if any of them are truly “happy” conclusions.
The world of browser games consist largely of quick-play experiences and it’s nice to see someone working outside of that paradigm. Click here to play One Chance.
This article appears in December 3 • 2010.
