Trauma

TRAUMA is a first-person adventure that tells the story of a young woman who survives a car accident. During her stay at the hospital she experiences trauma with distorted dreams. The player explores these dreams in four chapters and these provide vague clues about her identity and experiences, and further the narrative.

The player moves through the dreams with the point-and-click technique. It consists of static images stitched together to render the environment. That way the player moves in steps like in the Myst games, but with ghosting in the transition to simulate movement. There is however no full 3D movement. The player can often zoom in and click items to pick them up and store them in an inventory, or to trigger an action. There are also polaroid photographs hidden that can be collected, but these are often optional.

During the voyage the player learns a number of gestures to interact with the environment. These are drawn in yellow lines and can for instance be used to lift objects or to cut through passages. Techniques learned in later chapters sometimes need to be reused in earlier ones. At the end of each chapter there is a cut-scene presened as an FMV clip.

The game can be played online for free, but the commercial version offers a higher quality in audio and video, no loading times, and offline play. Nothing is cut from the free version however.