{"id":530,"date":"2018-03-18T17:51:09","date_gmt":"2018-03-18T17:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ewanwilson.com\/?p=530"},"modified":"2018-03-18T17:51:09","modified_gmt":"2018-03-18T17:51:09","slug":"not-a-review-paratopic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ewanwilson.com\/?p=530","title":{"rendered":"Not A Review: Paratopic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ewanwilson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Paratopic-v1-05_2018_03_18_00_51_05_092.bmp\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-534 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ewanwilson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Paratopic-v1-05_2018_03_18_00_51_05_092.bmp\" alt=\"\" width=\"1917\" height=\"917\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/paratopicteam.itch.io\/paratopic\">Paratopic<\/a> is a delirious game-as-trip, most resonant at one o&#8217;clock in the morning after a late night coffee you should never have had. Narratively disjointed, temporally muddled, its fuzzy-VHS jump-cuts are a welcome shock to the gentle amble of the walking sim. The game moves from one clip to the next, one mundane space to another: a diner, the lobby of an apartment, a gas station. A guttural mood-piece, its atmosphere blends skittish paranoia with contemplative pauses. Grubby lo-fi visuals effectively exhibit a world of urban decay and industrial grime \u2013 muddy wallpaper, cracked floor tiles and rusted shipping containers doing just enough to kindle a dark imagination.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ewanwilson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Paratopic-v1-05_2018_03_18_00_39_36_605.bmp\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-544 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ewanwilson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Paratopic-v1-05_2018_03_18_00_39_36_605.bmp\" alt=\"\" width=\"1917\" height=\"945\" \/><\/a>Some of Paratopic&#8217;s best moments are on the road, driving at night whilst the radio mumbles in the background. A comforting monotony that could only be enhanced by a light drizzle and the beat of windscreen wipers. A chromatic dusk looms above the city \u2013 sunset and pollution \u2013 as your car crawls past lampposts and squat buildings.<\/p>\n<p>The game makes spectacular use of &#8220;gibberish&#8221;, with the radio talk-host and other characters employing a handful of &#8220;proper&#8221; words before rambling on nonsensically. Try it yourself.<\/p>\n<p>As body horror grates against alien conspiracy, you find yourself strolling through a pleasant wood. These were my favourite sequences, and are where the sound design excels. As the wind whistles, leaves rustle and birds caw in the distance, the soundtrack builds \u2013 discordant with alien pulses \u2013 and Paratopic&#8217;s feverish tension finally comes to a head.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ewanwilson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Paratopic-v1-05_2018_03_18_00_45_19_338.bmp\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-545 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ewanwilson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Paratopic-v1-05_2018_03_18_00_45_19_338.bmp\" alt=\"\" width=\"1917\" height=\"989\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Paratopic is a delirious game-as-trip, most resonant at one o&#8217;clock in the morning after a late night coffee you should never have had. Narratively disjointed, temporally muddled, its fuzzy-VHS jump-cuts are a welcome shock to the gentle amble of the walking sim. The game moves from one clip to the next, one mundane space to <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ewanwilson.com\/?p=530\">[&hellip;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":534,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[46,23,31,47],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ewanwilson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ewanwilson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ewanwilson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ewanwilson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ewanwilson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=530"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.ewanwilson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":548,"href":"http:\/\/www.ewanwilson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530\/revisions\/548"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ewanwilson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ewanwilson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ewanwilson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ewanwilson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}