D-Topia takes us to a seemingly perfect world where every day is carefully planned and every task serves a purpose. Yet, behind this routine and apparent simplicity lies an experience that gradually begins to ask increasingly serious questions about happiness, freedom of choice, and what truly makes us human.A journey from monotony to empathy – perhaps this is the simplest way to describe the experience offered by D-Topia, a new game presented to us by the well known Annapurna Interactive.
There has never been a period in human history in which humanity, in one way or another, has not confronted the question of immortality. After all, countless games, TV shows, films, and literary works explore this very subject, often portraying the natural cycle of life and death as something to fear or avoid at all costs. Yet, it was precisely from this fear, the fear that something new must mean the end of something old, that one of my favourite video games – Dark Souls, was born. In attempting to stop the inevitable and prolong the Age of Fire, Gwyn did not overcome nature. Instead, in a way, he condemned both himself and the world around him to prolonged suffering, because sometimes the greatest consequences do not arise from death itself, but from our fear of accepting that, eventually, everything must come to an end.
The game itself begins with you waking up and being informed that you are a facility maintenance technician in D-Topia. Your job is to talk to the residents and help them because – that is simply your nature. Although your name is Shiro, just like every other resident, you also have your own unique number No. 046, and as the game and its robots slowly prepare you and guide you towards your room, it is difficult not to notice and feel that D-Topia may not be quite as perfect as everyone claims. In several places, you can spot the quote ,,The greatest happiness for the greatest number”, suggesting that anything which increases general well being and reduces suffering is morally right. I could not help but think of the story ,,The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”, in which the prosperity of an entire city depends on the suffering of a single child.
Another thing that caught my attention was the fact that I could not place a fire extinguisher back in its designated spot, even though there appeared to be no visible obstacle preventing me from doing so. It immediately made me wonder whether the game was cleverly hiding its true nature.
But before we dive deeper into that subject, it is worth explaining that every being living in this AI governed place has their own little home and daily routine. While children go to school every day, adults head to work. You wake up, put on your uniform, have breakfast, wash your face, and go to your workplace. Along the way, you meet different people, talk to them, and gradually get to know them better. However, your role in their lives is not limited to helping them with small, everyday problems. You will also face serious moral dilemmas, the outcomes of which depend entirely on you and the choices you make.
The gameplay consists of several different elements. You can freely explore the area, talk to NPCs, buy items that you can unpack and place in your apartment, and purchase food, however, when you are at work, your main task is solving puzzles. There are several types of puzzles, and the game does an excellent job of teaching you how each one works. For example, there are relatively simple mathematical puzzles in which cubes displaying certain numbers need to be placed in their corresponding positions. However, each puzzle comes with multiple difficulty levels, meaning that the further you progress, the more complex they become. You will eventually have to figure out how to turn one number into another, how to bypass obstacles, and much more.
The second type of puzzle, and my personal favourite, is the maze puzzle. If you remember those magazines where you were given a picture of a maze and had to guide a character through it by drawing the correct path with a pencil, this is more or less the same thing. Of course, these puzzles also become increasingly complex. There is also a puzzle in which you have to eliminate bugs, which probably gave me more trouble than the others because I was not paying enough attention, but structurally, it may remind you somewhat of Minesweeper.
However, all the puzzles you encounter during your job are optional. Completing them rewards you with additional U-Points, the in game currency used to purchase various items.
What makes D-Topia even more interesting is that the puzzles you solve at work prepare you for the puzzles you will encounter while trying to help the residents of this place. However, in order to access these puzzles, you first need to alter your visual system by entering Block Mode, where D-Topia begins to look like anything but the paradise you were promised.
Not only does the world visually transform, allowing you to see what it truly looks like, but you will also encounter tiny mice capable of speaking to you, creatures that are normally completely invisible. And this brings us back to my fire extinguisher. If you return to that same location, you will discover that a tiny white mouse is peacefully sleeping inside the hole where you were supposed to place it. On top of all that, the light, soothing music that accompanies you throughout the game suddenly shifts into something far more aggressive.
The third part of the gameplay is perhaps the most interesting which is the Brain Meeting. Many of the characters you meet are struggling with various moral dilemmas, and through Brain Meetings, which serve as a form of introspection based on everything you have learned about them, you make decisions about their futures. These choices not only alter the course of the story but also affect the ending you ultimately receive.
Throughout the game, you will notice that certain areas are inaccessible because they require a higher rank, while higher ranks also provide access to greater luxury. However, as the story progresses and time passes, your rank will gradually increase. At the end of the day, once you have finished your work, you will often be contacted by your mysterious neighbour, No. 047, who asks you various questions in an attempt to understand your actions. Furthermore, the more you speak with certain NPCs, the more your relationships with them develop, eventually allowing you to invite them to virtual tea parties and get to know them even better.
The game is short and is clearly designed to provide a relaxed yet interesting experience that certainly gives you plenty to think about, both through its puzzles and its moral dilemmas. At the same time, it also offers replayability, allowing you to choose different answers on another playthrough and influence both the lives of others and your own fate in completely different ways.
It also offers plenty of interesting characters to meet. Although the game does not feature any voice acting, honestly, it does not really need it. The characters are written convincingly enough to give you the opportunity to become attached to them. The dialogue is engaging and, from time to time, genuinely funny, especially when you are talking to the mice. And on top of all that, the game even gives you a chubby cat that you can feed, rewarding you with a unique and absolutely adorable cut-scene.
Visually, D-Topia is fairly simple. However, I think this style suits the game perfectly, as it helps you better see and feel the contrast between something deeply human, such as emotion, and something cold and artificial, such as the environment surrounding you. The characters are charming and look as though they have stepped straight out of an anime, while the almost unnaturally perfect organisation of the environment creates the impression of a utopia in which things are definitely not as flawless as they first appear, even when soft orange tones wash over the screen, signalling that it is time to return home as yet another day draws to a close.
One interesting detail I deliberately saved for the end is the fact that, alongside D-Topia, there is another place known as Z-Topia. Unlike D-Topia, Z-Topia is described as a chaotic place where everyone deemed unfit of belonging to this ideal society eventually ends up. Yet, the more you hear about it, the harder it becomes to suppress your curiosity and avoid wondering how much truth there really is in everything you have been told, especially when D-Topia itself is nowhere near as perfect as it wants to appear.
We would like to thank Annapurna Interactive for providing us with a copy of the game for review purposes.
D-Topia (PlayStation 5)
D-Topia may not be a long adventure, nor will its puzzles always leave you searching for a solution for hours, but its value was never found in those things alone. Its greatest puzzle is, in fact, the people you meet, their desires, their fears, and their moral dilemmas, as well as the question of how willing you are to understand someone whose choices may be completely different from your own.
That is precisely why what begins as just another monotonous day gradually transforms into a story about empathy, freedom, and accepting the fact that life does not have to be perfect in order to be worth living. In the end, the game's message is far simpler than any of its puzzles - perhaps what makes us human is not the absence of pain, mistakes, and imperfections, but our ability to accept them, understand one another, and, despite everything, keep moving forward.
