EdFringe Review: ARCADE

Once more this reviewer cannot say very much about Darkfield’s ‘ARCADE’ without spoiling the experience.

This latest episode in their adventures in the pitch black begins with the familiar health & safety chat before players step into another customised shipping container. Everyone lines up before their own arcade console in a neon-lit room. Each has a single button, a coin slot, and a coin release – it’s all very chunky because you’re going to have to find them in the dark.

You get one chance to leave after some practice dark, and then it’s headphones on and into an adventure. Fans of first-person role-playing games will find it all very familiar – if unsettling, whilst everyone else can opt, in-game, for a small tutorial. I also chose not to read up on ‘ARCADE’ before attending, so I could discover instead of anticipate it. I now offer you that option, by saying no more on the content.

“The detail is excellent. The sound quality and voice cast excel, and if you walk outside you will feel the air change. If you shoot someone…”

Setting ARCADE apart from just an interesting choose-your-own-adventure is the physically immersive touches. The detail is excellent. The sound quality and voice cast excel, and if you walk outside you will feel the air change. If you shoot someone…

Choices have consequences in the world of ‘ARCADE.’ One can only imagine the work that goes into creating this experience, so bravo to the team responsible.

The experience of ‘ARCADE’ remains fascinating until the final moments, when everyone is asked to return their unused currency (remember the coin slot?). If you had any doubt that your experience was unlike anyone else’s, just compare your stash of coins to everyone else’s.

Unlike FLIGHT, ‘ARCADE’ is also infinitely replayable…something you can’t say for the majority of Fringe shows.

P.S. Those who aren’t fond of the dark, just remember the Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark – “Dark is Exciting!”.