In recent years, with the proliferation of independent titles, it is not uncommon to find games developed by One Man Team in digital stores, gifted guys who develop practically all their work on their own. In the past we have seen Dust: An Elysian Tail, which convinced us with a solid storyline and gameplay, and Albedo: Eyes from Outer Space, a first-person adventure full of puzzles; Owen Deery he tries his Small Radios Big Televisions, aided by Adult Swim Games (Headlander, Rick & Morty) here as a publisher. Available from 8 November for PlayStation 4 and PC at € 13,29, will it be able to hit us?
Version tested: PlayStation 4
Everybody's gone to some kind of Rapture
Small Radios Big Television is an exploratory adventure that drags the player to five different factories, with the sole purpose of finding a way out for the next. Given its short duration (just under two hours to get 100%) we will not dwell on the general plot of the title of Owen Deery, but we will focus on all the other aspects that characterize the production. The factories of Small Radios Big Televisions produce cassette tapes, and most of the environmental enigmas are based on these media. Exploring each room meticulously, you will come into possession of three cassettes at the factory, once inserted into the portable radio supplied to the player, you will be catapulted inside and you will experience the environment described by the label firsthand. Each journey inside the cassettes is unique, and represents a different location: from the frozen tundra to a wheat field, from the tracks of a train to a relaxed river, the aim will be to find a sphere of green energy that will then allow us to open any closed doors.
That's all? Obviously not, sometimes in the cassette you visit you will not find anything, and you will have to demagnetize the tape to visit an alternative version of the location: each cassette has three different versions to visit, and some of these give very successful and disturbing atmospheres. Every trip to Small Radios Big Televisions' corrupted cassette tapes feels like an acid trip that probably would have made the most of it in virtual reality. While it doesn't last long, Deery's title manages to drag the player on a non-stop journey, surrounded by an intrinsic message about human nature.
Tape for all
In addition to the first-person exploration of the tapes found, the player is invited to explore each room of the factories in search of clues on the plot (often provided through engravings on the walls) and above all with the environmental puzzles, even if on balance, although they are all successful are no more than the fingers of one hand. The most interesting is certainly that of the penultimate factory, where the switches must be activated in order to lower and / or raise the water level and thus reach the buttons required to open the last door. While the simplicity of the puzzles makes the experience really suitable for anyone, on the other hand the very low level of challenge does not help the already short duration of Small Radios Big Televisions. Also, as often happens in console versions of point and click titles (such as The Banner Saga), the use of the controller is slightly inconvenient, especially in those puzzles that involve moving gears.
Enjoy the silence
We have already compared the journeys within Small Radios Big Televisions cassette tapes to an acid experience, but we have not focused on the quality of the colors and atmosphere not only of these sequences but of the whole experience. Where the title created by Deery convinces is precisely in the immersion of the locations, thanks also to a soundtrack guessed and sampled by none other than cassette tapes recorded for the occasion. The phases of the text in which the plot is carried out are unfortunately only in English, but nothing too complicated to be understood even by those who have only the scholastic knowledge of the language.
Verdict 7/10 Porco cane che trip! Comment Small Radios Big Televisions would have been a great title for Virtual Reality. This is because given its short duration and its strong atmosphere, it would have made the most of the new technology (and it is not certain that a dedicated version will not come out in the future). For the rest, the title of Owen Deery makes immersion its workhorse, dragging the player in about two hours of acid trip with guessed puzzles (few but good) and a background plot that once again faces the message about human nature. Pros and cons ✓ Impact atmospheres
✓ Guessed soundtrack x Short term
x No replayability
