Centum review — Corroded code

Within the unkempt code of Centum, something strange is forging a new reality. A mysterious long-lost video game that never reached the shelves is host to an unknown entity that has seemingly gone off the rails, or at least it would seem. Navigating the cryptic scenarios within, you must unravel the truth of the game and answer the question: are the gods truly merciful?

Most of your time within Centum will be spent clicking through environments to interact with characters or investigate the strange happenings in the world. Objects are always highlighted to show what you can interact with, and some items can also be picked up and added to your inventory to use in other places. It's rather run of the mill point-and-click gameplay, but the intriguing and often unusual art direction helps make up for the simplicity.

After booting up a curious program on a computer monitor, you’re introduced to a cell with little more than a bed, window, table and a door. After poking around, you come to the conclusion that you need to find a way out. There are a few ways to reach this goal, but if you haven’t discovered one by day three, you’ll loop back to day one after being judged by an imposing jailer. While not every level functions exactly like this, the core elements stay the same throughout. Click objects, collect things, solve puzzles, etc.

You aren’t alone in this strange land however, as you’ll encounter all manner of people and vermin of which to converse with. While I did generally find the writing to be fairly interesting, the poetic nature of dialogue and narration often left me without a clue on what was really going on. It's less eloquence and more confusion, as long strings of dialogue wax about the mercy of gods or musings of lies, free will and life. I regret to say it put me teetering on the edge of boredom at times, but thankfully never fully pushed me over that cliff. 

Thankfully there are some intriguing moments and beguiling characters that helped to keep me going and see the mystery to its end. By the time I reached the ending I did have a surface level understanding of what was happening, but there were a lot of things that I felt I didn’t really have a full grasp on, but that sort of storytelling may be what some people are looking for admittedly. 

While Centum may not knock it out of the park in terms of gameplay, the puzzling and often downright odd encounters you’ll face are usually enough to draw you in. There isn’t much challenge either, which allows the art to take center stage. If a rogue AI forging its own world beyond the black river in the depths of lost media piques your interest, then Centum may be just the indie you’re looking for. If it’s interesting gameplay mechanics or traditional narrative storytelling you seek though, your search will continue.