Bumbling Through Sentient p.1

[@Vulf_Faolan]

Right in the middle between "This is the content I sub for" and "Please make it stop".

[@saraczwei6850]

Ah, I remember that game, I got the PC version in a bargain bin for like 20 cents. All I recall is that it's a game where everybody wants you to do SOMETHING, doesn't tell you WHERE or HOW and then you die. Everybody just assumes you know what you're doing. In retrospect, it's a decent simulation of adult life.

[@RagnarokiaNG]

This is an accurate representation of me trying to speak to people.

[@fadplastic]

Sounds like my current job teaching in China. 😝

[@Phucketmcsucket]

Probably doesn't help that for whatever reason they use a stupid ring system to give directions instead of, you know, those things called signs which have been around forever

[@Phucketmcsucket]

@@fadplastic Do they have a big red button at the school you work at that blows the building up too?

[@fadplastic]

Phucketmcsucket no. But some days I certainly wish it was there. ✌️🤣✌️

[@catapuchin]

this looks like a complete nightmare. please continue

[@xX_Thaddeus_Xx]

4 years later and I still keep coming back to this bumble. The enigma of Sentient is timeless...

[@VelvetTeacake]

It's truly a brisk piece to cob

[@traewilson5127]

You know a game is gonna be special when nearly every time he sees a character he either can't help but laugh or mutter a horrified Oh my GOD in the face of...THAT character. But I must say to Psygnosis Games, that this game was a truly brisk piece to cob. They have my thanks for this wonderful, accidentally horrifying, intricately woven to the point of madness tapestry they've woven here. This is the kind of stuff I love seeing showcased on this channel.

[@MidnightVoyager]

So at Auburn University, there's an infamous building called the Haley Center. It is known for being impossible to consistently navigate. It has a weird quadrant system and everything is super identical. It is common for people to walk into a classroom before realizing they are in the wrong quadrant and maybe even on the wrong floor. What I'm saying is that I feel like I'm back in freshman year here.

[@Crowley9]

_Of course_ they named a station in orbit near a sun "Icarus". That always goes well!

[@TheSamuraiGoomba]

Icarus 47: This Time It Will Work

[@damiansein860]

Icarus Station: because Titanic II was too on the nose

[@Crowley9]

My favourite is in the movie Sunshine: Not only do they send a spaceship on a mission to the Sun and name it Icarus, but after that one fails and contact is lost, they send a second one and name _that_ Icarus 2!

[@Lobos222]

I dont get it. Ohh, what does this button do, "Solar shield control"?... :D

[@inferno232]

When I see a SGF LP open with a jank-ass looking early-3D character face and the name of a late-90's game I don't remember, I know it's gonna be a good one.

[@FullCircleTZ]

Oh my god. The graphics, the art direction, the cinematography. It's all so perfect!

[@JovemCabeludoEBravo]

Lol

[@noreiz9170]

hahhahahha loll

[@MetalSocks]

This game feels like a dream. Stumbling around corridors with meshed up numbers and symbols, people walking about with their faces half loaded, putting together words like it's mad libs. I know there's that dream game for the PS1 that's supposed to feel like a dream, but this whole game is about that last second when you wake up knowing something's not right, only it lasts about maybe 12 hours? Not even HowLongToBeat has a good answer how long this game is.

[@K31R616]

@@phantomninja6079 - Interesting...

[@CatOperated]

If only Sierra games back in the day had a Respect For Player slider

[@CaptainWumbo]

A game not made to be played, sounds right up your alley SGF.

[@Fanathewanderer]

"Infection disease spreading, station falling into the sun, an assassin on the station" ... another regular day on Goonstation 13.

[@UltimateCarl]

Bizarre, mismatched graphics, a game engine held together by duct-tape, ambitious to the point of detriment to itself, obtuse controls that make no sense, you have no idea what to do, all of your coworkers are assholes, the game lasts about an hour tops but is probably shorter if you royally screw up... Yeah, this is SS13.

[@LucasRazorBlade]

*That was a truly brisk piece to cob.*

[@oddbirdMusic]

I suspect this game will be less frustrating with massive use of save scumming -- one savefile for exploring things, learning where rooms and objects are, and trying out weird stuff, with a completely separate save file for accomplishing tasks once you have any idea how to do so. I don't know if you'll make it through this one, but I'm rooting for you, and I'm really glad you've decided to share it with us. I have the strange feeling that I won't be able to find out how this game's story goes without you...

[@K31R616]

Nice tactic. And I agree also, I sure as heck ain't playin' through it.

[@hotdog-nq3kz]

this is exactly the type of game i love. as the most important watcher of your content who isnt paying you a single cent: please keep playing this

[@AllisonIsLivid]

I kind of wonder how the world might've shaped up if games like this had waited just one generation until their ambitions weren't so far beyond the technology. I mean, can you imagine if Return of the Obra Dinn had been released on PS1? With PS1 capabilities? I'd guess it would wind up just as obscure and strange as this. But if this were released NOW with the same technologies that Obra Dinn has, I could see it working out as another indy darling.

[@marcfoster715]

Sentient deserves a sequel. Too bad Psygnosis is not around anymore.

[@JonathanSicoli]

Sentient TAS 100% Frown% Rude%

[@JovemCabeludoEBravo]

Hahaahahahahajahahah

[@thegrapefruitheart]

I can't believe it's been 4 years

[@vashtanerada100]

gonna admit, wasn't expecting to see anybody else try and play this monster.

[@Jokoko2828]

Oh baby, that respect for player slider is the best thing.

[@Siarawaszympanemjest]

I absolutely adore this game. It's so claustrophobic and oppressive. Love it.

[@mycatisromeo]

This game is an abstract spiritual experience. Truly unique and strange. Never fully knew what I was doing but it felt like another world. Great style and alot of interesting substance. Every time I played this game, I always felt the inevitability of my own demise because I knew I was never getting off that ship, sinking into the sun. Definitely gave me a sense of mortality and thought about my own small life and how insignificant it is in the grand scheme of the Universe.

[@zeawesomebassplayer]

I remember looking into this game after Giant Bomb played it for a premium stream. There's a bunch of crazy simulation stuff going on, and it's pretty clear that the game was too ambitious for its time and budget. There's a great interview with three Psygnosis people about the game on the defunct "The Game Liberty," which is available via the waybackmachine: web.archive.org/web/20100218134625/thegamingliberty.com/index.php/2010/01/07/sentient-we-turn-to-the-skies/

[@ijumpshrooms707]

Medic can smile and frown... Next level game mechanics for the time.

[@PurpleWind64]

Needs farting and whistling in my opinion.

[@Foagik]

How about commanding you horse to poo on command?

[@ijumpshrooms707]

@@Foagik On a space station?

[@Foagik]

A reference to another game and its so-called innovations. It'd be apropos to compare the player character to punished snake. Why not

[@Hi_Just_Fred]

@@ijumpshrooms707 the space horse of course

[@Fellow_Traveller1985]

This game is one of my all time favourite games of all time. It's hard to put my finger on exactly why, but I remember when getting the demo from The Official UK PlayStation Magazine CD Disc 17 there was something really captivating about this game, it seemed very novel at the time and still kind of is. I bought the game despite it being pretty expensive and being a poor kid, but I managed to scrape together enough money eventually and the game did not dissapoint! It was hard as hell and not being a native English speaker made it even more difficult to comprehend, I even remember the requirements back on the disk said "a strong command of English is required to play this game". The game gave me a legit sense of mystery and a real feel of actually being trapped on a distant space station deep in space with real people, it really felt more like a simulation than a game to me. Being able to deeply interact with the people and the stations machinery and computer systems was something I had not seen before in a game and I still can't really say I've seen anything else since then live up to this. I think the right way to play this game is to play it about a dozen times unguided at first and try to discover as much as possible on your own, then go through the old walkthrough guides that are online (the guys who originally figured it all out on their own who wrote those walkthroughs must have been insane.) Would LOVE to see a remake of this game and explore more of the extended universe, but that will probably never happen as Psygnosis is long gone. I would have made my own remake of this game if my programming skill were more adequate.

[@LordoftheFore]

The sheer amount of database lore that's discovered later on in this playthrough is astonishing.

[@DisinformationAgent]

At the start, I saw the radiation victim burned to a husk and wondered why anyone would wish to be stabilized that far gone. Then we get to see the uninflicted and radiation sickness starts to seem like a very good way of beautification.

[@d1halberdgnoll963]

This is like a nightmare, I love it.

[@greedosspeedo1464]

In fairness to the wiping-forehead-emote everyone does, the exposition does mention that the space station is apparently 120 degrees (!), Icarus Station probably reeks with sweat.

[@MarmaLloyd]

Every time you start a new series I fall in love all over again Thank you SGF for reminding me how to feels a love

[@LeeONardo]

I remember this as a demo on official UK playstation magazine, me and my friend couldn't work out anything within the timeframe they gave you to do stuff before the inevitable time out game over when the ship explodes. Plus the main guy reminds me of Moby.

[@JoelBurger]

Goldberg and weird European sci-fi is the combination I never knew I wanted

[@MrDumbRodent]

10 seconds in and i can confirm this is the most SGF videogame

[@NotJonJost]

This game is just astounding. Gotta give it some credit for ambition, at least, though.

[@Jokoko2828]

You can see the ambition but the tech literally wasn't there yet.

[@TheWetOnion]

this video is a truly brisk piece to cob

[@rubenmborgesmusic]

Man is this game ever awesome. I keep coming back to this let's play. I wish there was sequel.

[@SuperSubmachinegun]

This game sets a new uncanny valley standard. A standard of sheer terror.

[@JamesCarmichael]

This game is fantastic. A true piece of gaming history. Wildly ambitious, but the end result is something to behold.

[@hatad321]

If I'm remembering right, you can actually ask people to lead you to places/people. It's just they won't wait for for you, so like going through a teleporter you'll lose them.

[@KingshipKRP]

“Who is Wan Chai?”

[@marcfoster715]

You can follow them through the teleport, as it shows what floor they went to.

[@JXZX1]

Why do I get Pathologic vibes from this...

[@bigcat9765]

"I'm going to tell you a little bit about the story, because you're not going to understand anything about the story from the intro." SGF, already no respecting the audience. Not allowing us to piece together things for ourselves. I would like to turn the Respect The Audience slider up please.

[@Hi_Just_Fred]

Respect for audience slider at max: "Ok so this game is terrible and I don't want to make you watch videos on it, so how about we just play this really cool *GOOD* game I've got."

[@kaargen]

Wow, just when I thought the list of *special* 90's adventure games had been exhausted. Glad they're still making them.

[@heybigbender]

I remember playing this as a kid being extremely confused in every way possible.

[@zacharyhicks6237]

3.6 Roentgen.

[@Phucketmcsucket]

If I had any coding experience I'd make a game with a difficulty setting for "respect for players". Hardest difficulty would crash the game with the error message "Fuck you"

[@Karma20XX]

The room / octant system makes my head hurt.

[@boilerhousegarage]

Aw awesome! I bought this game new at the time (for Playstation 1) and got 3 endings which didn't take long, but couldn't get any further and all players' guides (what walkthroughs were called back then) also only assumed there were the 3 endings I achieved, so it'll be great to see it played properly. Subbed!

[@ivant.w.9152]

"I bought Goldberg cus that's real dumb." Don't let him hear you say that, it'll be spear-jackhammer-1-2-3.

[@hatad321]

Oh boy this game. Has some interesting mechanics, like the conversation system. But man it's very confusing on what you're even supposed to do.

[@abbylarkspur]

This game is British and as such, "Never my best photo, that." Translates to, "I always take bad photos for those."

[@xX_Thaddeus_Xx]

M-Mark Blewitt. One of the marketing people for this game was named MARK BLEWITT. ...Do you think he blew it?

[@KingshipKRP]

So it’s a game that doesn’t tell you what to do, but expects you to do it as fast as possible? Classic Psygnosis.

[@Crowley9]

All that's missing is cover art by Roger Dean.

[@npiper]

@@Crowley9 14:14 naw they had Roger Dean do some level design instead of cover art.

[@Phucketmcsucket]

Reminds me of Darkseed. Didn't find out that you need to give the lawyer dude the booze so he'd grab a stick to play fetch with dog so you could grab the stick to I don't even fucking remember what the stick is for within the time limit? Fuck you buddy, you lose

[@Shenaldrac]

Honestly yeah, more games should have a "respect for player" slider/setting. The closer to easy, the less bullshit trial and error stuff there is, the more it respects that your time is valuable. The more you set it to hard, the more you encounter unavoidable death traps, unfair QTEs and enemies that aren't actually any more difficult than on easier modes but have more HP so it takes longer to kill them, wasting your time. You could replace "easy" and "hard" with "Lucas Arts" and "Sierra".

[@ThingsOnDemand]

There could be a “Narrative” slider under the same category. “JE Sawyer” for maximum narrative respect for the player (the game wants to tell you a story you’ll enjoy), “David Cage” for minimum (the game is going to tell you the story it wants to tell you whether you’ll enjoy it or not).

[@Shenaldrac]

@@ThingsOnDemand I'm in agreement, though I think the far end of the Narrative slider should be labeled Pathologic.

[@GameolioDan]

..... that was one hell of an intro. I had to bust out the glow sticks!

[@ThingsOnDemand]

There’s a Best of the Worst episode where Macaulay Culkin and his podcast co-host Shawn guest star. They watch a movie called Roar, which had over 50 cast and crew injured by lions during the filming. At one point during the discussion, Shawn says “I took half a Xanax before watching this movie. It didn’t help.” And that’s how I feel about watching a playthrough of Sentient.

[@Purin1023]

Oh man this is going to be a tough watch for me. I don't know how the developers managed to make every single aspect of the game so uncanny. And thats not even touching on how mind-numbingly frustrating this game looks to play. Godspeed SGF.

[@lnfreeman]

The shuttle/solar flare music in the intro was a *bop* !

[@TMMQuicksilver]

Insane names, extreme user unfriendliness, absurd setting with zero background or logical explanation, a dream of a fully interactive station far beyond the technical reach of the developers... I'm guessing this game is from Europe, possibly France? This has some serious eurojank vibes and could be insane enough to be a Coktel Vision masterpiece (See: Urban Runner, Inca, Gobliins) E: Oh my god, these cutscenes! This station is more janky than Space Station 13.

[@brobzoid]

europe is correct, but more specifically liverpool, england. they became sony computer entertainment europe's studio liverpool after 2000 or so. in addition to overy ambitious and shitty games they made some more competent and actually popular stuff like lemmings and the wipeout series

[@TMMQuicksilver]

brobzoid Wow. I would not have guessed Psygnosis. I generally loved their games, even the weirder or obscure ones like Darker or Ecstatica. Maybe this was rushed?

[@GeorgeNoiseless]

@@TMMQuicksilver A post-mortem on the game, if you're interested (link borrowed from one of the above comments): web.archive.org/web/20100218134625/thegamingliberty.com/index.php/2010/01/07/sentient-we-turn-to-the-skies/ But careful, Heavy Spoilers!

[@MultiProcessing]

I'd actually very much play this game. Clunky UI aside, there's a charm to it that really appeals to me.

[@TriplePalindromous]

CAREFUL, ICARUS

[@npiper]

Maybe it's just my failing memory, I was 17 when this came out, but I really don't recall the "everyone is on meth" era of 3D too well. Dear god 90's 3D was awful, I am honestly surprised everyone didn't get fed-up with it all and go back to sprites.

[@MisterPhillby]

I have so many questions, please continue to play this extraordinary game.

[@avj_curvebreaker]

about 10 seconds is all i need to know that this is peak psygnosis

[@corsaircarl9582]

I had the 8mb yellow PS1 memory card, that bad boy was A LOT back then.

[@CheetahsArePrettyCool]

re: this feeling like an alien ship, I wonder if a bee spaceship would be built like this but with divisions of six? this feels like some bee bullshit do a waggle dance to tell coworkers where the hexagons are

[@Evonymus]

I randomly remembered this game a few weeks ago but couldn't find it because I'd forgotten its name. It was a nice surprise to see it here. Damn it's nauseating though, instantly gave me motion sickness.

[@Phucketmcsucket]

The station reminds me of one of the hospitals was stationed at when he was in the military. His office was in a fucking labyrinth of hallways and waiting areas and you'd probably never even find him if you didn't figure out the signs or memorize the way to his office

[@1stKwestionable]

Love these relaxing play-throughs of relatively obscure games!

[@sbef]

Quidge Magum... what a brilliant name

[@Bosstrad]

God Im so happy you are considering more. =D Its so interesting.

[@AwwsomeMuffin]

On behalf of us who don't have to play this game. Please Sgf continue.

[@markyboo]

I credit the developers for their ambition and trying something different from other console game of the time, but the technology of the day just wasn't up to the task of making it an enjoyable experience.

[@SpikeRose]

SGF really needs to play Hellnight/Dark Messiah.

[@subrussian]

yes, I got Hellnight vibes from the start of this!

[@JonathanSicoli]

Good news! He did!

[@martinwalker400]

I played this game in 2000 when I was 6 years old. It seems that this is the answer for what reason I started using drugs in adulthood.

[@VidGamer123]

Mason Garrilac, a.k.a. Triangle Man from the hit song Particle Man by TMBG.

[@JovemCabeludoEBravo]

I can thank you soooooo much for your wonderful gameplay You need that Nobody in the world will make it

[@SCMabridged]

This game is amazing! How have I lived without it?!

[@chandl34]

The time limits in this game are pretty brutal, even when you know what you’re doing.

[@Somethingorother00]

Man, if I was playing this I'd have a walkthrough open at all times. I admire your ability to just play games like this.

[@dominatorN4]

That is such a weird system why did they think of that and not...a map? That thing used by humans? Omikron had its excuse of being an alternate dimension so..

[@Welther47]

This game is ahead of its time - at least hardware wise

[@K31R616]

- ''They believe that you may be his likely target!'' - ''Wut.''

[@ConsoleCleric]

Self-Destruct Button: Do not push unless you really, *really* mean it!

[@pwnerj]

God, I want to see this game be remade.

[@reloadpsi]

I saw a demo of this once. The "respect for player" slider was called "language."

[@suzannadraws1178]

oh my god i love this this is beautiful

[@PastaMaster115]

If you don't take the graphics of the time into account, you could just say that everyone looks like burn victims. They do live and work near the sun after all.

[@kyleshadow416]

The last series that caught my interest was that titanic game, and now this? Finally another great game to unwind too. Also this may be the ugliest game I've ever laid my eyes on.

[@Jack_Slate]

SGF always pick games that are just up his alley, hard to navigate and perception dependent!

[@kinoate]

This looks fascinating. I hope you play more

[@thegrapefruitheart]

Genuinely itching for the next eppy

[@JovemCabeludoEBravo]

How do you have courage to play this fucking crazy game?

[@johngleeman8347]

Every face in this game looks high as a kite or mid-psychotic break. '8O

[@JohnEarnest]

Fascinating stuff. Maybe it would pay to spend some time interviewing a few NPCs and making a map so you can get from place to place quicker?

[@thesidneychan]

Brigand Oaxaca vibes here.

[@Cubelarooso]

Honestly this place seems easier to navigate than the Titanic.

[@ycylchgames]

8 months ago the world was such a simpler, different place. I cant believe everything that's happened since then it feels like yesterday.

[@emanuilspasov3678]

after watching the entire video i can conclude that this isnt sonic adventure 2. im very confused

[@K31R616]

Damn, this popped me. Laughed real hard outta nowhere. Thanks!

[@GeorgeNoiseless]

I would not blame you for a moment if you decided to bail on this one, the time limit coupled with such an awkward interface would drive me mad. But I must also admit -- it is pretty interesting. P.S. Turned out there would be suffering and intrigue in nearly equal measure, A treat!

[@Achoohorsey]

This game seems PRETTY GOOD.