Title: Digital: A Love Story
System: PC
Release: 02/2012
Genre: Visual Novel

   It the early days of the internet, 1988 to be precise, you have just purchased your first computer, a new Amie Workbench. You began with the numbers numbers of a couple of Bulletin Board Systems, and from them you will learn the ins and outs of the early internet, including the seedier sides like early pirating and hacking. Through your travels you will meet Emilia, and after an accident she disappears and its up to you to try and find a way to contact her again, using only a scrambled message that she was able to get to you.
   As far as controls and presentation go, Digital is pretty bare bones. Inputs are handled exclusively with the keyboard and mouse, while the game's interface is meant to emulate a late 80s Amiga interface. Sound is pretty space, only a handful of songs, a few of which are catchy, but they'll start to wear pretty thin by the end of your playthrough, the only real sound effect in the game is the nostalgic dial up modem, that anyone you used the internet in the days of dial up should be ever so familiar with. The writing is truly where the game shines, while it's a little rough around the edges, the story is worth playing from start to finish to see Ms. Love's story playout.
   Digital isn't for everyone, but for a first foray into the visual novel genre, this isn't really a bad choice. It's linear, but there are a few mysteries for the player to uncover during the course of the game's short campaign, that left me scratching my head and running in circles for a short time. For a game with essentially zero graphics, it is well written and it's clear that Ms. Love and her team had a grander idea than their initial outing would allow. Thankfully, those ideas would eventually seen fruition in their future titles.

Rating - 6 / 10 (Above Average)

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