JohnCurtin Sunset High Review

I got my review key for Sunset High the same week that I finally bought Blue Prince, and let me start my review by saying that Sunset High held its own for three or four days against the puzzling masterpiece. I don’t know if I can offer higher praise than that, even if this comprehensively listed Sunset High’s many positive qualities. Sunset High by Turnip Games is the love child of Disco Elysium, Brick, and Groundhog Day, a poetic pixelated time loop mystery. You play as a social introvert whose crush vanishes overnight, leaving you to navigate high school politics, quantum physics classwork, and the onset of mysterious time powers in order to find out their whereabouts. It’s a daunting task. The game unfolds uniquely, constrained to a handful of scenes while the sordid story of whodunit, how, and why unfolds in well-written and labyrinthine conversation menus recursively explored in the time loop. The colorful cast of characters have charming pixel art portraits that vary as events effect moods and attitudes amongst the characters. A rewind/fast forward mechanic can render much of the challenge of the game a simple matter of patience to meticulous planners, but more casual gamers or neophytes to time travel gameplay might find themselves occasionally trapped in unsatisfactory loops and patterns, unsure of how to progress. The game does reward meticulous detective work, but it doesn't hold your hand - practice and repetition are your curse, guide, and weapon here. The game does have some small glitches that speak to it being a small team and a passion project, but I didn't find them to be game-breaking - in fact, my favorite bug, when I accidentally triggered every single end-of-class presentation at once, felt almost like part of the game, timelines unexpectedly colliding and unraveling under my investigative assault. As I'd stay up past the wee hours of the morning pursuing quantum leads, it felt like the early days of the internet, finding uncut gems on Flash portals and behind forum links. Not everything was perfect, but we didn’t need it to be either - especially if it was saying something interesting. As I dive steely-eyed into the New Game+ mode that follows a late-game reset, I can solidly recommend Sunset High for patient, thoughtful gamers that want a game they can sink their teeth into; Disco Elysium completionists looking for a quantum Portal-like mechanic to speed-run their conversation simulator; and people who really wish that Brick and Victoria Mars had a little bit more science fiction.