When was the last time you turned the radio on? I imagine for some of you younger readers, the answer is probably never. To be clear I’m not judging you here if that is the case, or even if it’s just been a while, it’s a format that feels hard to reckon with when its main point – listening to a range of pieces of music – is made borderline moot in the era of streaming services. All of which makes Omega Point, a game where you control a mech but the only thing you can do in it is change which radio station you’re listening to, all the more interesting. A severe epilepsy warning is needed for this game as it has a lot of flashing images.
Omega Point is a new game from indie dev Cathroon, whose work you may have previously seen in The Devil. A quick aside, if you haven’t played The Devil, and you’re desperate for a brutalist retro horror game, make sure you take a look at it alongside Omega Point. Speaking of, back to the point!
There is no protagonist in Omega Point, only you, the game starting with your body dissipating into nothingness, leaving you with no choice but to board your mech. This mech is the last surviving Doctrine, a machine that exists at “The Conjunction of Science and Religion.” Once you’re inside, you flick each individual switch to turn the metal giant on, eventually arriving at a timer and a message that says once it runs out, whoever is speaking will be here for you.
And after that? All you can do is explore a ruined world, and listen to the radio. There’s rock tracks, chiptune, lo-fi beats, jungle, spoken word, looking at the credits there’s at least upwards of 50 different songs to listen to.
With nothing else to do but listen to the radio, you do just that, and it makes this experience of watching the aforementioned timer count down feel a little bit less lonely. It’s a curious little game that runs at just over 30 minutes (the timer itself is a full 30 minutes), so it’s not a long experience, but it packs a lot to mull over in a short window.
There’s that classic thing that many a mecha story does of what the pilot’s relationship is to their mech in conjunction with feelings over the body. There’s also the fact that even in such a desolate world, something as simple as the radio can still persist, each station sharing a small expression of itself for whoever happens upon it. A lot of big feelings for such a short run time!
A big recommendation from me for those in search of a short, punchy game that feels fitting for the times we live in. You can pick it up, for free I might add, on itch.io.