Take It Personally: Don't Take it Personally

I'm going to have a whole lot more to say about this later in the week, but it is only right to point your ocular organs its way while I finish playing it and arranging my thoughts. The wonderfully-titled 'Don't take it personally, babe, it just ain't your story' is the next (free) game from Christine Love, who you may know from the best adventure game of 2010, Digital: A Love Story. I've only played an hour or so, but already it's lodged expertly in my head and won't get out.

This is a follow-up of sorts, primarily in theme but with a few more direct meta-nods, but with the critical difference that it's a visual novel rather than a text adventure. Well, 'visual novel' is the easy descriptor: this carries a few, very powerful choices and the best depiction I've ever seen of how we consume information and follow people's lives in the internet age.

I've found it moving, I've found it sinister, I've found it painful and I've found it highly evocative. This is confident stuff, most especially in its writing and human observation. Visual novel? That doesn't even begin to cover this.

More on that soon, however - in the meantime, go take a look at this tale of heartbreak, ethical and sexual dilemma and high school turbulence, and we can all have a chat about it in a couple of days.

Oh, and don't let the anime look put you off. I don't personally believe it was the wisest choice for the game, precisely because it will drive many potential players away as they presume it's something it isn't, but rest assured there are a great many other wise decisions in it.