Babbdi was published by Lemaitre Bros in 2022. Due to the dark and scary vibe created by the game, it seems like it was made for players who are at least in their teenage years.
Babbdi promises discovery, expression, and narrative. From the environment, to the artifacts and the people, it is unclear exactly what information you need to aid your escape. You are constantly making new discoveries about the world you are in, and about yourself: where you came from, why you are there, and why you need to escape. The dimly lit environment and dystopian artifacts contributes to a feeling of helplessness and loneliness, adding to the drama of the game. The vibes of this game as a whole reminded me a lot of the Maze Runner series.
Walking is the only way for the story to unfold, making it a key mechanic in Babbdi. As you walk through the game, you are continuously bombarded with information that you have to dissect in order to get closer to the objective: escaping Babbdi.
There are 21 secret objects that you can acquire throughout the game, which are important resources. Note that there is no combat in Babbdi; objects can offer special movement abilities. There are also less defined resources, including the people you meet along the way. I encountered a few individuals throughout my quest, but the information they provided was often vague or difficult to dissect. Sometimes, information was completely useless. Though this information was a resource, they often required some decryption. This created an interesting dynamic: I wanted to interact with the people I saw because I knew they could provide potentially important information, but they were also quite scary looking at intimidating to approach. I did not know in advance whether the information was going to be useful or useless; it was a risk I had to take before approaching each individual.
I could imagine this game being really interesting on a VR headset. However, it would make players more prone to simulator sickness, something that I already experienced while playing the game on a desktop. Because my view was moving but I was not physically moving, it caused me to experience a headache, and decreased the amount of time I was able to immerse myself in the game between breaks.
Overall, what makes Babbdi interesting is initial the lack of information. As you walk through the world, you have to work to acquire information to fill the gaps in your knowledge until you have enough information and resources to escape. It is advertised as a short-person experience, meaning that it cannot be played for a long time. Once you escape, that’s it. I imagine I didn’t encounter all of the offshoot narratives, but what was left to discover wouldn’t be enough for me to play the entire game again. This is a potential area of improvement for the game — besides collecting all of the secret objects, perhaps mini-objectives would expand the boundaries of exploration in the game, and keep players invested for more than just a single game.
