One of the nicer things about having watched the development of video games has been the settling of the old question “can video games be art?” That question has been answered resoundingly with a yes. We are seeing more and more often games that are equal in narrative complexity to novels, in visual beauty to film and static art, and there is, especially within the indie scene, a whole sub-genre of games that are at their core artistic endeavors. Even coding itself, the very beating heart of every game, has revealed itself at its highest levels to be less a craft or technical skill, but art in itself when you see those rare instances of a particularly elegant piece of code
But what happens when you get a piece that’s definitely art, and not just good art but great art, yet you’re not sure it’s a game?
(It's not a pretty game. It's the voice acting and writing that get to you)
Meet “Eliza” from Zachtronics.
Even coming from a developer best known for “programmer’s games” that rely on a player’s coding and logic skills, Eliza is something of a dark horse. It’s the polar opposite of Zachtronics previous work, a dense piece in the visual novel style, and one that’s rooted in the emotional responses of its cast and the player. It’s a long, long way from the factory management and engineering of Shenzhen I/O.
You play as Evelyn. Evelyn has a new job, a zero-hour contract gig that most of us are all too familiar with. Evelyn works as a proxy, someone who acts as the human interface for an AI program ELIZA (named after the very first primitive chatbots). She’d previously been at the peak of her career in the tech hub of Seattle before burning out - something again we’re all too familiar with. Evelyn’s job is to read Eliza’s responses to patients to them, something she must do without deviating from the script. The deviation is grounds for dismissal and even early on, before you know Evelyn’s backstory at all, you get a sense of how much she NEEDS this job. She can’t afford to screw this up.
The sessions themselves, just like the game itself, are fully voice acted. And I should note that the voice acting here is superb. You really believe that these are real sessions, real people. Absolute kudos to the developer for really working that voice acting talent. It’s easily equal to a AAA title and it goes a long way towards making the game feel real despite the artificial constraints of the visual novel format. It says a lot about the quality of the voice acting and the writing that I was totally hooked on this despite me loathing the visual novel format.
Now there’s a great deal of backstory to Evelyn, a lot of soul searching, a lot of brilliant interactions with friends and co-workers that flesh out the story. I won’t spoil those for anyone who chooses to play the game. For me, the central genius of the game is how it deals with player choice.
We are repeatedly given the mantra in most games that player choice is at the heart of gaming. The ability to go wherever you want, do whatever you want within the confines of the system are huge selling points, especially in things like open-world games.
Eliza takes that mantra and stands it on its head. For much of the game, the player has little meaningful choice. Evelyn must keep her job which means she must parrot back Eliza’s responses. There is no agency here. Instead, we bear witness. It’s not until late in the game that Evelyn is given a real, meaningful choice, a choice that has even more impact because of her previous lack of agency. It’s a genius move on behalf of the devs, and it makes the emotional impact of the game punch even harder. It does make me question though whether this is a game in anything like the traditional sense. Perhaps it’s more of an interactive experience? And it’s far from just an academic point, it’s something that you’re forced to confront as a player, and it’s part of what elevates the game as art.
Eliza forces you to confront so much. The privatization of healthcare. Mental health and how we process trauma. Friendship and just how much shit you should take from someone you love. The ethics of zero-hour contracts and so much more. And all of it with this emotional intensity that I honestly didn’t think you could wring from the hated visual novel format, from such flat graphics. Again it’s a testament to the incredible voice acting and the beautiful writing. I doubt many people can get through Eliza without shedding a tear.
Regardless of whether it’s a game or not, Eliza is an experience that stays with you. It’s been over a year since I first played it and I’m still thinking constantly about it, about how it used design to tell such an involving story, about the issues raised, and my visceral response to them. I can understand people being turned off by the format but Eliza is something you truly need to experience for yourself, a landmark in narrative design for gaming that everyone can relate to and anyone at all interested in design simply must experience. Of all the games I’ve played in the last year, it’s the one that stays with me the most and now guides my own work. Art piece or game you really should invest a few hours into the world of Eliza.
Eliza is available on PC, Mac, and Switch. Reviewed on Switch in undocked mode.
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Great piece dude.