4.5/5 ★ – positivestress's review of AI: The Somnium Files.

how can I justify giving this game this score? I didn't like the core Gameplay sections. the titular somnia? they're not very good. I kind of hated them. I love the concept, for sure. everyone makes fun of point and click adventure games for their ridiculous logic, so why not have them literally take place in dreams? this is a great idea, and encourages experimentation to reverse-engineer the dream logic behind the cause and effect that progresses the game. this person is scared of being yelled at, so of COURSE the use of a loudspeaker would etc. etc. the problem is that god damn six minute timer ticking down with every action, making trial and error a very literal waste of your extremely precious time. sure, you can reset to one of your previous checkpoints if you fail... once! because for all you know, you already locked yourself into failure by making aiba spend 45 unnecessary seconds putting a bucket on her head. oops! I don't know if these segments are in the sequel or how it handles them if they are, but I would love to see the concept executed better so how can I justify giving this an almost perfect score? well, I can't, but I will anyway: I just used a walkthrough every time I felt the slightest bit of friction with the puzzles! I cheated not only the game, but also myself, into having an incredible experience with a colorful cast of stupid asshole (complimentary) characters, a completely buckwild story, classic idiosyncratic uchikoshi dialogue, and possibly the greatest finale scene I've ever witnessed in a video game this game also did one of the best things a mystery can do, in my opinion: it gave me just enough clues that I always felt like I was one step ahead... while still surprising me at every turn and keeping me guessing until the very end. that's what kotaro uchikoshi does best, and I look forward to many more endless monologues about philosophy and speculative fiction to come!