The White Chamber

The Good
I'll make this one short: The White Chamber is a sort of interactive horror flick; you wake up in a deserted space station with no recollection of who you are or what you're doing there, and as usual things start to go very badly from there. What makes The White Chamber unique is first and foremost that it's a free, independent game made by a small development studio with no massive corporate backing. As a game, it's also pretty original in its presentation and in the sort of things you must do; reminiscent of Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of Flesh it features simple logic and inventory shuffling to perform basic tasks that advance the plot.

In the age of massive, realistic 3D games it is actually refreshing to play a pure 2D point-and-click adventure without pretense; the graphics are mostly well-drawn (animation is a little lacking though) and feature a unique blend of goth, anime and horror themes. The sound is terrific - far higher quality than you'd expect in this sort of game - and the attention to detail in the monologue is also surprisingly high.

You can't die in this game and it proceeds very smoothly; I rarely found myself confused as to what the next step is, and it's usually because I've missed an obvious item in one of the rooms. The plot isn't very original but works very well never-the-less.

The Bad
The White Chamber is very short (I finished it in, I believe, less than 1.5 hours), which may or may not be a bad thing; otherwise it's somewhat lacking in the music department (its music consists of background hum and the occasional scary noise, again a la Phantasmagoria 2).

The Bottom Line
A great way to spend a couple of hours: original, interesting, enjoyable and free. Highly recommended!