Submachine 1: The Basement

The Good
I find it strange writing a review for the first game in a series with such a cult following. Yet, if I look at this game divorced from all the Submachine mystique, the impression is that there's not much there. The game is very short and actually has little to do with all the later development of the whole storyline, which is often very enigmatic and even philosophical. The series developed with some amount of continuous contribution from the fans, who even published their theories about such issues as ontological status of the Submachine or the fate of Murtaugh... perhaps I'll stop at this point because saying more would be a spoiler. Anyway, I think the most likely explanation for this lack of closer relation between the first game and the rest of the storyline is the simplest: at this point Mateusz Skutnik himself didn't know yet how to develop the series. In its first version, the game was in fact called just "Submachine", not "Submachine 1". I think he got a clearer idea where the series could go around the time when he was working on "Submachine 4". From this point of view, "Submachine 1" is a tabula rasa.

Yet I think it's possible to find something positive is this lack of connection. Basically, "Submachine 1" is a pure escape game. (The same can no longer be said about later games, which already develop much more of a storyline.) You've likely seen them: all these small, casual games you could play when you have nothing better to do. "Escape the bathroom", "Escape the scary house"... (Actually, Mateusz Skutnik has also made a few other games of this kind - a series of short games about getting out of various rooms in the same house, with very colorful, funny graphics.) Often a bit of a challenge, but no deeper meaning. They could be called mini-adventures in the sense that they have some very sketchy storyline to begin with, but their gameplay is much more puzzle-like: from item to item, from clue to clue... In an escape game you are alone, locked somewhere and have to use your logic to get out. "Submachine 1" follows this game philosophy. The only piece which hints to something beyond what we see is a diary page found on the floor. It's not even used, it just is, as a slightly perplexing item with no connection to the rest of the game. The diary tells the story of someone who lost his arm in an accident, but then he discovered that he had "a third arm. The invisible one". The diary author then says that people started considering him insane - and even with my view that we need a much broader idea of what constitutes mental normality (or perhaps even a more radical criticism of the whole idea of normality), lacking any other clues, I tend to think it may well be true - especially when this person writes things in the vein of "it would be like explaining the possibility of space travel to a goldfish". Simply: at this point we know nothing else about this person. In the second part we will discover more - also things which seem to confirm his extraordinary abilities. Yes, this means analyzing the game in relation to the later ones, even when the game itself doesn't reveal such relation. To be honest, without this perspective the game remains just quite boring. But it also allows appreciating the amount of development on Skutnik's part. Sure, he had much time for it. He is working on several comics and games each year and so the Submachine series developed slowly, in increasing intervals as the games became longer and more detailed. But, if comparing scenes from "Submachine 1" and one of the last four games in the series - it could be hard to believe they come from one game series. "You've come a long way".

Now, imagine that our (at this point nameless) protagonist, the person who wrote this diary, is rushed to a hospital and a surgeon says something like, "yes, losing an arm is quite a severe impairment - but at least he won't break his arm". Saying that "Submachine 1" is much more boring than the later games, but at least it... etc. sounds like something in that vein. Yet it is really an advantage that could be found in the game: at least you won't get lost here. It is at least convenient when seen in contrast to the amount of backtracking found in later games, especially the huge final one. But in pretty much any game such comfort comes at a price. If a game world is small enough to keep you from getting lost - it won't be interesting.

The Bad
Even as just another escape game, "Submachine 1" isn't very interesting. It is too easy and seems goalless in a way. The graphics aren't great too. There is some development if we compare the different versions. Soon after the half-baked first version, another one was already introduced, which enlarged the game world and made it slightly more diverse - for example panels on the walls now have more differing colors. This trend slowly continued an in the current version there is for example a more complicated piece of graphics - the ancient coin. The only problem is that is doesn't suit the clean, simple graphics of the rest of the game.

The sounds have some uneasy feel to them, but again there's not much to remember. Generally: the game is just quite boring, both as a simple escape game and as part of a series which later developed so much in such unexpected directions... The only thing which "redeems" it is the legend of the whole series. I'd risk saying that people play it just because it is the first Submachine, anyway.

The Bottom Line
Still, is it worth to try the game? I think yes. Just because it's so small, being bored is not a problem. If you want to know the Submachine world, play all the games, even while knowing that the first one has very little influence on the storyline. If nothing else, it allows seeing how much and how soon the series changed. It's amazing to think that at this point Skutnik probably didn't know yet in what direction(s) to develop the whole game world. And all these simple factors created an amazing, intense, enigmatic game series.