Gene Mocsy decided to create Irresponsible Games trying to implant a different vision to the games of classic adventures. I wanted to get away from that generalized current in many games of today where simple stories, without great complications and sadly shallow reign everywhere. His intention was, and we hope it will be in the future, to write peculiar stories ,
from that strength that gives you belonging to an independent study, with a recurring background: the past of North America . So, knowing that the company is based in San Francisco, it was not going to be very difficult to imagine where the events of their first game would take place.
Mocsy, has plenty of experience. A part of artist and designer in games like The Godfather, or The Simpsons, is co-scriptwriter of A Vampyre Story and Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island , games of which 1954: Alcatraz drinks quite a graphic level.
And maybe in excess. In an intelligent maneuver, and knowing that Germany is an adventurous country, he knocked on the door of the giants of Hamburg, Daedalic Entertainment looking for that extra in the production that would give him that boost in quality and open new markets for him.
The beginning is promising. True to his initial idea, Mocsy proposes an original and attractive setting. And we do not mean the so-called gannet, if not the time, and the place. San Francisco in the 50’s of the last century was the refuge of the
Beat generation . A group of writers who started on the east coast, but went west destroying the American values of the time in their wake. They broke the ruling mojigatez and assumed a breath of fresh air in a terribly oppressed society. Well, in that promising environment one of the main characters moves, Christine.
The main problem that the game has is thatthat adult, bohemian, original environment in an adventure, does not stop being an excuse to tell a story, which in the end has already been narrated in countless occasions.
Mocsy dived into hundreds of photographs of the time to recreate the setting, and 2D scenarios are delicious, no doubt, but the set does not work . Try to narrate a black thriller, but already input is mixed with unrealistic 3D figures that do not accompany to take seriously the story that a thriller demands . We do not ask for a script like
True Detective (an impressive series by the way), far from it, but the demand is higher each day and 1954: Alcatraz falls into certain defects of the adventures of yesteryear that were already outdatedfor an audience that in a thriller seeks realism and knows exactly what it wants. He also wants to play with the idea that decisions mark the future of history, but you can tell they’re wearing a shoehorn and do not really affect the final outcome.
There are two endings but it is known that it will be one result or another depending on a final question, not on what we have done during the game.
