EXperience112

eXperience112 (The Experiment)
Developer(s)	Lexis Numérique
Publisher(s)	Micro Application The Adventure Company
Designer(s)	Nicolas Delaye
Platforms	Microsoft Windows
Release date(s)	EU 20070917September 17, 2007 NA 20080205February 5, 2008
Genre(s)	Adventure
Mode(s)	Single-player

EXperience112 (styled "eXperience112" and renamed The Experiment in North America, New Zealand and Australia) is an adventure game created by Lexis Numérique, and published by Micro Application in 2007 for the Microsoft Windows platform. In the game, the player does not directly control the avatar; instead, the player helps to guide the avatar via a system of cameras and remotely controlled equipment as a person who is sitting in front of a computer.

Gameplay

With the use of a sophisticated security system the player helps the main character, Lea Nichols by telling her where to go, by turning lights on and off, opening doors, entering codes, controlling helper robots, and reading the torrent of files, email, and codes you are given. Not all the e-mail contain helpful information, neither are all the cameras useful, some having fallen objects obscure the view or being otherwise non-functional. The game keeps a log of real world play time with Lea noting how many days long you've kept her waiting since last playing.

Plot

The setting is a derelict ship stranded on a beach in the middle of the ocean. The player, an anonymous person, is mysteriously locked in the operations room with doctor Lea Nichols, the only survivor of the said ship.

The player first finds Lea Nichols through the camera lens when she wakes up from her room. After a brief introduction of herself, she is reluctant to trust the player with valuable information (such as the login details to her computer account). However, since the player is the only person still alive beside her, she has to rely on them for her survival. During exploration with Nichols on the ship, she finds the remains of her old colleagues and occasionally, recollects some memory fragments of an experiment subject called "112".

Development and release

Outside of Europe, the game was released in February 2008 by The Adventure Company. In North America, Lea's appearance on the box art was changed considerably, but her in-game appearance was unaltered.

Reception

Reception
Aggregate score Aggregator Score Metacritic 68/100 Review scores Publication Score GameSpot 7.5 GamesRadar 7 Hyper 80

EXperience112 was met with mixed or average reviews. GamingShogun called the game a "very rewarding and challenging adventure/puzzle game which manages to create a hodgepodge of voyeurism, lateral thinking, and atmosphere that will surely give you the willies if played by yourself in a dark room". Brett Todd of GameSpot said that the title "overcomes its clichéd beginnings with original gameplay." Hyper said the "videogame postmodernism" style of voyeuristic play creates, "a truly bizarre feeling...rather than working against it, it contributes to its success."

See also

• Lifeline