Detention is not actually a new game, because this title has been playing for a while in North America. After a long wait, the game is now finally available in Europe. Pack your school bag and get ready to go to Greenwood High, to get behind the bizarre story of student Ray. Greenwood High is a school in Taiwan, during a period that the Taiwanese themselves call the 'White Terror'. This was a time when the country lived under martial law, which lasted for more than 38 years (1948 to 1987). With Detention you are literally in the middle of it, in the 60s. During this period it was strictly forbidden to criticize the government and to keep you busy with communism. That means that reading certain information was literally life-threatening.
A catchy prologue
You play in Detention with two characters, Wei and Ray. Ray is a final year and Wei is a year lower than she is. Wei falls asleep at the beginning of the game during his lesson. When he wakes up, it is dark and stormy outside and there is a warning for a typhoon on the blackboard. Wei rightly asks why nobody has woken him up. He makes him get away before the storm breaks out. By solving various typical point-and-click puzzles, you soon arrive at the auditorium, where the exit is also. When you arrive at the auditorium, you see Ray sitting on a chair on the stage. She sleeps. When you wake her up, she no longer knows how she ended up here and she does not want to leave without her lost chain.
However, they discover that the bridge near their school collapsed due to the storm. So there is no other option than to stay overnight at school and try to warn someone by phone from the director. When Wei leaves his classroom, suddenly the world around him changes. He does not notice anything of it, but everything is black and white and more importantly: the whole school is completely dilapidated, with broken doors, windows and more. Unfortunately, we will never see Wei reach the telephone, because he walks into the darkness. The role of Wei in the further story depends on how you play the rest of the game...
The next thing you see as a player are images that could come out of a war document. Ray then wakes up again on a chair in the auditorium, but the school is anything but the way we got to know it. Ray makes another attempt to escape from the school, but even the entire path to the bridge has disappeared. As soon as she retires, you will meet one of the ghosts at school for the first time, a "Lingered". This is only the prologue and the beginning of the game; so prepare for many more spirits and other nightmare-like events.
Gameplay
Detention looks like gameplay at first sight a very typical point-and-click title. You control your character with the arrow keys and you click with your cursor on certain clickable objects or characters. Your inventory will give you more information about the objects, which sometimes help you to understand more about the story. Furthermore you will always be able to try to use items, but they only work in the right place... One item except incident: Incense. That is a sacrifice for the Lingered that you will regularly encounter.
During play, I have misplaced this several times by accident and then you have lost it. If that happens, you will have to travel again to the room where you found the Incense. The actual intention is that you derive the Lingered with this, making it easier for you to escape. Furthermore, you also have a button to hold your breath, also to use to escape the spirits. Logically your air will get up after a while and you will get dizzy, but Ray will automatically go to air. So you will have to time it well to get away unnoticed.
Realism and madness exist at the same time
After the reasonably realistic and truthful set-up of the prologue, you quickly find out in chapter 1 ghosts and bits of stories from Chinese myths. Let me be terrified of everything that has to do with the supernatural... The spirits and all supernatural elements are based on Chinese mythology, Taoism and Buddhism. For example: incense sticks burn for the gods and talismans, and "spirit money" burn for the spirits of the dead. Fortunately, not the entire game is filled with ghosts. In fact, the game gradually changes from a "spooky ghosts and monsters" horror game to a psychological thriller.
It may be just what you prefer, but actually both work very well and the transition is very natural. It feels like you are moving from a 'real nightmare' to the bad memories in Ray's head. It seems that Ray creates more and more order in her own chaos and recalls more and more precisely where the problem started. The game is built up as if you actually experience her story backwards, although the events sometimes still run through each other.
The symbolism tells the real story
Ray is mainly involved in school, but sometimes she ends up completely different through a door in the school building. This was a little confusing at first, but soon you will get used to the fact that nothing is as it seems. A lot of things in Detention are symbolic. You will have to pay close attention to finding out what really happened, what Ray makes / hallucinates, and what is symbolically meant. That may sound a bit 'artsy-fartsy', but in this game the symbols are worked out very well. I was able to quickly find out what the underlying meaning was, while I knew little beforehand about the culture and time in which the game takes place.
Symbolism finds exactly the right balance between too clear and obscure. The best part, if you go through the 'scary' parts of the game, is that there always comes a wow feeling. Not necessarily because the puzzles are so complicated, but more because the story as the larger whole will increasingly come together as puzzle pieces. Even after I had finished the game 100%, I had several "oh yes!" Moments after that to think about symbolism.
In this way you will suddenly make a trip from the dark world to a number of spaces in bright neon colors with bizarre surrealistic content. A flying goldfish? Can just. Neon letters that do not seem to be connected? Fine! Ray walks through it and the story then immediately shows you the cause of the sudden change in the environment. The objects also all have a purpose; they will never 'just' sit in it and always give a bit extra of Ray and Wei's story to those who take the time to watch them. You will still see this in the end. Tip: play both ends, because that way you will appreciate the story as a whole.
Conclusion
It was completely worth the goose bumps to take the extra steps here and there to find out everything. You might fall silent after the end if you realize that these are - in part - the memories of the older generation of Taiwanese. The typical horror elements in the game - whether they have 'really happened' in Ray's life or not - are pretty scary in their own right. In order to remind you that the actual story, which you learn little by little, between the surrealistic events, is actually something that has happened to people in reality... that creates just that little extra impact. Detention is on the short side, but it is a fascinating adventure to fathom.
Pros
➕ Unique and interesting setting
➕ You keep sharply between locations and time
➕ Story is the biggest puzzle of the game
➕ The game keeps you in its grip
Cons
➖ Point-and-click elements and puzzles a bit easier
➖ Spirits use fixed patterns
➖ On the short side
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