If you are surprised to know that the title DOSEONE will have a sequel, you will be more surprised to know that it is just as wonderful
In the always interesting Anglo-Saxon dialect there is the term fever dream. Although it has a Spanish namesake –fever dream-, it lacks the same cultural representativeness vis-à-vis its linguistic group, since few use it to refer to experiences, events or pseudo-realities which, however extravagant or incredible, seem the result of the most inexplicable of imaginations. Therefore, precisely fever dream will be the main description of this writing, because That’s just how I felt, surprise, surprise, Slime Life 2.
If the revelation of a sequel seems unexpected to you, believe me that for this server it was more so. I very much enjoyed the launch of the original work and, coinciding with my always true Víctor, it is about culturally relevant work for our sector and therefore relevant to me. So my recently completed fever dream It is given for two reasons: first, because I could never have anticipated a reality in which I would have the honor of sharing some first impressions of Sludge Life 2; and secondly because I could never have predicted that it would be as dreamlike as its predecessor.
X-ray of the… centenary?
I specify in advance that I will be bold enough to steal metaphor of the one who preceded me in the interpretation of the first adventures of Ghost, recurring protagonist of this story. Although it would otherwise be an exercise in creative immorality for which I would not forgive myself, I think the simple act is extremely relevant for the occasion. Firstly because I have an extraordinary university exam on the horizon and I don’t have time to try harder, but mainly because Sludge Life 2’s anti-structurality is a new mirror that speaks too aptly of our lives.
This, like everything in the video game, speaks on many scales. Antistructuralbecause it avoids the traditional canons of the sector, leaving aside mechanical trifles to focus on what is really its own: the narrative and communicative; antistructuralbecause every message, every criticism, every joke, every dialogue, every aesthetic aims to subvert the human institutions of the 21st century, our 21st century; And antistructural, because it literally lacks the structures that allow it to be free. Free to tell, free to dialogue, free to joke… free to be, more like an art than a product.
In the process, Sludge Life 2 continues the Sludge Life missives, maintaining the irreverence of its ideology in an infallible humorous tone that penetrates deeply. However, he sometimes dares to switch them around, changing their order and direction to deal an even greater blow to our own conception of the psychological, social, cultural, economic and political context to which we submit ourselves day after day. From the exploitation of labor to the climate crisis, from the hacking of video games to the maintenance of order as an aegis of power or from the loss of the meaning of life to the irreversible precariousness of Generation Z, the news of DOSEONE again plants a carnage at the center of our daily lives.
Between its artistic conception, its sound composition and its messages, we find ourselves once again in front of the kind of creations essential so that our environment does not succumb to the boredom of substantial immobility to which many arts begin to arrive. Without products like this, my relationship with the interactive medium would be the chronicle of another foretold death, because I need works like Slime Life 2 to renew, from time to time, my love and my devotion to this field. And, yes, these are only first impressions, at most I will have seen 30% of what he offers, but this third is more than enough to know that in front of me I have, like three years ago, a new mirror in which to see me (us) reflected.
The charming irony of continuity
Based on what has been exposed so far, you can be sure of something: Sludge Life 2 is about as Sludge Life as sludgelife can be, and this implies its form and its substance, its means and its ends, its channels and its spaces. In other words, This is a 1:1 replica of the original formula: most of the interaction with the world is done through dialogues and graffiti, there is a mini-game –new– which is incredibly creative and fun, the story is non-linear and has different endings depending on your discoveries and actions… It’s not the same but, in this context, more of the same is completely positive.
So if you liked the original, you’ll like this one; Yes No No. Sludge Life 2 does not flinch for a second in the search for variety in its systemsto improve, modify, transform or extend them, so much so that, from the common video game point of view, that “2“seems to be just one more joke among many the work throws. Is this a critique of our industry’s unstoppable tendency to extend the useful life of franchises in an effort to increase utility, despite the that they don’t add anything really relevant Or will he be another victim of the voracious world of capitalism, green numbers and abundantly positive tax declarations? I leave you to respond to such a charming irony..
a mud life
Or not. I won’t leave you the answer. Not that I care either. I have to go to school to get a degree in a career that will allow me to insert myself precariously into the work system, submit myself even more to power structures and occasionally refer to the pleasures of life like having a rest a day by week, breathe 17 seconds without thinking about being productive and undergoing the greatest of fever dream: get over it muddy life. Over time, curiously, I will concede the reason for Sludge Life 2, and I think that’s why I liked it so much. because he is right.
Bottom line, I’m bad at making first impressions. I fail every time I manage to do this kind of article, mainly because ideas fall on me like crumbling mud trying to erect a fairly readable figure. However, as with the metaphorical robbery a while ago, it may be timely this time. Because Slime Life 2like my life, like this Insightmud is and to mud it will return. Sludge Life 2 is literally my (our) life, and it’s as charming as it is devastating.