Printed magazine style brief VN about a former American Old West gang member sent on a quest for redemption, but having two alternative options. No user features. Looks nice, probable high AI usage.

Atonement is an Old-West novelette featuring three different mini stories.

Jim Ryan, a former outlaw turned family man, is trying to live a peaceful life on the Texas ranch he purchased with dirty money stolen during his years riding with the outlaw gang led by “Wild” Bill Hamilton.  His attempt at going straight is thwarted when the local sheriff turns up at his ranch and coerces him into either hunting down his former boss, else leaving the state before meeting the lawman again and facing a bullet to the head, with the same fate threatened for his wife and young son.

This leads us into the choice of which of the stories to take on, either hunt or run; with the running option subsequently splitting further into either a bank raid or a train heist.

Each story is told faithfully in a 1950’s Western movie style, predictable but appropriately crafted tropes from the genre, and put together in a way that does feel like a cleanly edited version of a longer adventure you may have found in a magazine many years ago.

Graphics

Graphically, the game does stand out as can be seen below, with the sprites having high level details and resembling certain actors you may recall actually seeing on the big screen.  Most of the standard backdrops are also of a good standard with the CGs (resembling magazine pages) being particular standouts.

However, it is made clear on the store page that AI has been used in the creation of the visuals, and looking at the screenshots below, I think it becomes pretty clear as to what extent.

Aspects of the second picture above (notably the floor and window) are much simpler than the rest and tend to suggest that human creativity here is minimal.

Positives

• Obviously your own views on the use of AI will affect your opinion as to whether the visuals within this game are a plus or not.  It’s worth pointing out that there wouldn’t be whole lot to enjoy in the package without them.
• The supporting soundtrack, whilst understated, is absolutely spot on for helping to generate that 50s-TV-Western atmosphere though.  Kudos for that.
• The characters created also feel true to our understanding of the period.
• There are several decisions to be made in each story, and if making a wrong one gets the player character killed, you’re offered the chance to go make a different decision straight away.  No enforced requirement to start over.

Negatives

• The first thing I noticed about the game was the complete absence of player friendliness in the menu.  Or, more accurately, the near total absence of a menu; it comprising the choice of “Start” or “Chapters.”  You can select which of 2 of the 3 chapters right from the off, which will allow you to bypass the initial scenes.
• There are a grand total of zero player functions once you’ve started the game.  Yes, really, none.   Skip, backstep, save, quit, text size.. no, no, no, no, no and you can keep going with the same answer for as many functions as you care to think about.  You press start, you follow the story through, you reach the end, or you abandon part way through and start again another time.
• The text box.  Check this out below.

I found that text positively uncomfortable to try and read.  A real eye strain affair.  The small size, white/black colour mix, and italics all combine to make reading an unpleasant task.  I almost quit out of the game at that first screen after seeing what I was going to have to deal with.

Captions are not limited to the size of the text box, either.  Several of them contain multiple sentences which require scrolling up to see the full content.  This is probably not too bad if you’re using a mouse with a scroll wheel, but if you’re on a laptop trackpad…  the slightest pressure when trying to scroll and pop!  On to the next caption, and of course, you can’t backstep.   Sure, there’s a scrollbar to drag for these instances too, which I tried to use first time, only it still managed to jump on before I’d scrolled all the way down.

Verdict

Once I had semi-adjusted to the extremely reader-unfriendly text display, I found the stories to be mildly engaging.  Of course, if you have no interest in the American Old West, then this will hold no appeal for you at all, but if you do and are happy with little tales which jump from critical scene to critical scene with no world building in between, then there is a degree of fulfilment to be had here.  It’s not all bad.

The game took me only one and three quarter hours to play through in total, and even that included a ten minute break left running while I went off to make a cuppa, so it isn’t overly painful not being able to save, so long as you prepare a long enough playing session to see it through.

At a full sale price of £1.69, it’s unlikely to be the worst value game you’ll ever buy, and it does offer some creditable features, but the negative aspects, most notably the uncomfortable-to-read text – in a novel! – make this a step too far to recommend.

Try under advisement if the subject matter is your thing.  Just don’t expect too much.

Review also posted on Steam ➞

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