OneShot (PC)

OneShot is a little indie charmer brought to you by Japanese publishers Degica and developed by indie studio Little Cat Feet. It’s a game that seeks to break the mold – by messing with your head, not to mention your computer.

Your little on-screen avatar, Niko, is able to talk directly to you at times, even as the game lets you know that the solutions to certain puzzles can only be found on your actual computer system. Naturally, both she(?) and the game refer to you by name (the one in your Steam profile), even if you never told the game what it was... The paranoia induced by a game that knows your name, messes with files on your computer, and creates more of it own, helps to extend the foreboding atmosphere of the game beyond its window borders, in a very meta fashion. Of course, if you take umbrage at a game accessing your drive without warning, this is not the game for you.

Note that the game is called OneShot for a reason. The game auto-saves whenever you turn in for the night, or otherwise close the game; there is no going back. Sometimes, this is even necessary in order to trigger a dream sequence for Niko, who might then ask you if you saw it, too. The game world knows you are there, watching... waiting... learning.

The storyline follows Niko, a little human/cat/something with huge eyes, has awoken in a strange, new world she's never heard of before. Much of the landscape is cold and dark, having been blasted clean by some past disaster. The husks of deactivated robots lie everywhere, and our little would-be heroine ends up with this world's sun – a huge light bulb – in her possession, and so, she reluctantly sets out to put it back where it belongs, in hopes of somehow getting home as a result. With your help, of course.

The graphics in OneShot hearken back to the 8~16 bit era, originally created for a game creation competition in 2014. The atmosphere is dark and foreboding – you are literally the light in the darkness here. The music features some wonderful tracks to help set the mood, helping you to fall into this unexpectedly engaging game.

Also, a word to the wise: don't play in full screen mode; sometimes the game will pop up dialogue boxes via the Windows UI, and you don't wanna miss them.