Eliza Reviews

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Closest I ever came to getting therapy

Very existential, and tackles a lot of very interesting themes of nihilism, your place in society, etc. While a rather short experience, its one of the better visual novels I've played. If u like a more grounded story, I'd recommend this :)

Wow that was boring. If I wanted to follow a story that I have no influence over at all, I would read a book. Or watch a movie. And still I would have more fun than playing this. Made it to chapter 4 and speed-clicked through it. Not going to play the rest. No gameplay, no interesting characters, no moral dillemas, no choices.

Excellent, engrossing story. Fascinating, prescient premise. Flawed, human characters. Really enjoyed this one. Wish there was more games like it.

First play through completed, and I loved every second of it, it delved into real thoughts of different issues and societal perspectives people might not always consider in the day to day about similar issues. The progression felt real and like you actually get to know the characters in a way that matters. A gorgeous game, I'd recommend it to anyone that asked for a game worth every penny.

A beautiful game at this point in time. It's poetic and thoughtful, it allows the user to go through at their own pace and experience their own feelings about what is happening. Tackling themes of AI and morality, it's a great title to experience when so much is happening around these topics in the real world. I found I could relate to some of the characters in particular ways while keeping my own perspective on things. Thank you for this.

I like it when developers go out of their way and do different projects. In that way, I'm glad Eliza was made, but it just didn't land for me. I've played and enjoyed (and often failed at) other Zachtronics games, and I knew what I was getting into when I bought this one on sale. It's not a puzzle game by any stretch (solitaire notwithstanding), it's a pure visual novel. Visual novels are already not my style of game, but I decided to try going into it with an open mind. Unfortunately, what I found here was... just okay. Nothing I can really recommend spending the time on. The concept is sort of neat, I thought the voice acting was good, but not enough really happens with the story. The game plays with the same themes throughout, and too little seems to develop or change through the story until an ultimate scene where [spoiler] the main character makes a final decision (you quite literally pick from a list of endings), in which the character is suddenly resolute in an epilogue about their choice despite an entire story full of responses like "maybe" and "could be" and "possibly". I get that part of the resolution is the main character finally deciding what to do, but the sudden change is jarring. [/spoiler] If you're unsure about the game itself but are really curious to try out the solitaire variant, I recommend instead buying "The Zachtronics Solitaire Collection".

Its a really good story and a polished game, the subject matter is interesting and it brings up a lot of very good questions. I think a lot of people should experience this game, its really a special thing. However, the biggest negative and the thing that soured my experience at the end is that the illusion on choice in this game makes it a huge disservice and I think it even subtracts from the point the game is trying to make. Choices do not matter in any meaning full way. You just pick a choice, see its immediate effects and its otherwise irrelevant. And I understand its somewhat necessary to not have a million huge branch of different things to account for but even the big decisions and the big stuff does not matter at all. I took my time carefully consider every decision, cultivating my different relationships to the different characters and this game just kinda didn't care and that soured my experience. The other sticking point is that a lot of the things that happen during the story don't have any real payoff. We don't get to see what happened to the people we served as proxy for, we don't get to see how our final decision impacts the life of the rest of the characters or the ramifications of our decision in the world. I was specially sad since one of the characters (Rae) asks you earlier in the game something along the lines of "what ever you end up choosing, just keep in touch ok?" and your friend Nora also has a similar line and we can chose to be "absolutely! I value your friendship" or "idk, might be busy, we'll see" does any of that matters? Nope. Do we see if we hang out again with Rae? nope. What about Nora? Unless you pick her ending, no. This game did a terrific job making me care about all this people and then by the end it stabbed me in the back and whispered in my ear "surely you didn't care about any of them, right? You don't need to know how they are doing"

excellent story and voice acting