Read Only Memories: A Love Letter to Snatcher

While point-and-click adventures dominated PC gaming in much of the 80s and 90s, we largely saw a Western interpretation of the genre. Games of this ilk were a rarity in Japan, as RPGs were what folks tended to gravitate toward over there when they wanted a narrative heavy experience. That's not to say no adventure games ever came out over there, because they did, but they were a rarity by comparison, and developers' take on the genre was quite different. These games, while still having puzzles and whatnot to solve, were often much more focused on story and visuals with two of the most well-known games of this sort being Snatcher and Policenauts.

Both of these were created by Hideo Kojima before Metal Gear Solid became his primary focus in development, being heavily inspired by films like Blade Runner and The Terminator with their cyberpunk, film noire undertones. The games were a fascinating take on adventure games as they went about story, puzzles, and ambience in their own way. These days, they're largely viewed as classics, and only now are we seeing people put out a game that is very much an homage to them with Read Only Memories, a game that goes for this much more Japanese approach to adventure games.

Just like the games it's emulating, players set on a cyberpunk romp, exploring Neo San Francisco as they help a little robot named Turing figure out what happened to its creator, who also just so happens to be an old friend of the main character. All the while, visuals akin to late 8-bit and early 16-bit games fill the screen, and synth-heavy tunes stream from the speakers. It's something I'd expect to see on a Sega Genesis with a slightly more modern sensibility in terms of artistic style.

Playing through it, the game ticks a lot of the right boxes as a fan of Snatcher, although it does feel a tiny bit more like a visual novel than an adventure game. A lot of one's time is spent in conversation with people either chatting or trying to get information out of them. So, the most players have to worry about in these situation is the kind of persona that they want the main character to project, usually selecting from a nice guy answer, a dickish answer, and something in the middle. The answers do matter in that there are multiple endings to the game and they're impacted in part by what Turing thinks of you once it's over, making it something to keep in mind.

This isn't to say you'll spend your whole time talking to people, trying to solve a crime. There still are some puzzles to solve and other non-conversational activities, many of them quite novel. Nonetheless, that is what a majority of one's time will be spent doing, so have a cup of tea ready and settle in for some reading.

Thankfully, the story is good. Solving the mystery of Turing's missing creator takes a fair bit of sleuthing, and feels very noire while going about it. There isn't anything that is hugely novel about it, but a cast of charming characters with some nice plot twists keep things interesting. ROM does try to touch on some social issues, but it doesn't feel like the game is being preachy about it. If the player wants to sit down and have a good think about them, they can go down quite the rabbit hole, but that's on the individual, as the game doesn't dwell on the stuff, simply putting it out there as food for thought instead.

Fans of games like Snatcher and Policenauts should seriously think about giving Read Only Memories a shot. It really does a good job of revisiting the sorts of games these were, rare gems in their own time that didn't get the attention they deserved when they first came out. From recapturing the aesthetic to giving us a nice little cyberpunk story, the game will be most welcome to folks who miss this sort of adventure game even if it does lean a little bit more toward feeling like a visual novel.