OneShot

OneShot is a unique adventure puzzle game where players help a child who has been transported to a mysterious world complete her mission to save the sun. The game uses a top-down perspective, requiring players to guide the child through various puzzles and answer questions to advance the story. Depending on the player's answers, the ending will take different directions. Can you successfully help the child complete her mission and return home? Puzzle game enthusiasts shouldn't miss this gem, OneShot!

Gameplay of OneShot:

The game follows the story of a young girl named Niko, who wakes up in a strange world known as the “Barrens”. Equipped with a flashlight and a mysterious entity known as the “Entity”, Niko must get on a journey to save the world from impending doom.

The OneShot Game features a top-down perspective and pixelated graphics, reminiscent of old-school RPGs. However, the gameplay is far from traditional. Instead of a traditional menu system, players use the “ribbon” interface to interact with the Entity and objects in the game world.

As mentioned earlier, the game also breaks the fourth wall by having interactions with the player themselves. For example, the game may ask the player questions or require them to take actions in the real world in order to progress.

The puzzles in the OneShot Game are challenging but not frustratingly difficult. Most of them require critical thinking and attention to detail, making the gameplay both engaging and satisfying.

Player Comments: of OneShot:

This game took a while for me to get into. The first part of the game was a bit of a slog for me, although the worldbuilding was already pretty great and caught my attention. However, after that, I really enjoyed the atmosphere and worldbuilding of the subsequent parts of the game. The last part of the game blew me away completely and left me more emotional than many stories I've experienced!While the gameplay of Oneshot isn't anything particularly special, the story, art, worldbuilding and especially music are fantastic, and if you're hooked from the beginning or can get through the first part of the game just fine, you'll almost certainly enjoy the ride that's to come.Try to avoid story spoilers as much as possible, the story of oneshot is one that's very much worth experiencing blind.

I am writing this while doing my second playthrough. I knew nothing about the game and how it was until I played but let me tell you this, this game is outstanding.In short, you as a person who's playing this game is god of their world, and one random kid went to their world and you can talk to him while playing. The way interactions between the kid, you as a god and people in the world has made is really awesome, there's one more entity in the game and I'd rather let you figure it out while playing.If you love puzzle games in general, you owe yourselves this gem.

OneShot was a much better game than what I had expected, and is the most emotional game I have played so far. I do not cry when playing games, watching movies, or reading books, but OneShot made me cry. The art, outside of talking sprites and "cutscenes," is not the greatest and the world is pretty confusing to navigate, but the storytelling and interactive features of this game make it incredible. This is a game that you'll remember for a long time.

Endings of OneShot:

Quitting the game: Quitting before solving the remote code puzzle (specifically until the "You only have one shot, Player." pop-up message) doesn't give the "bad ending", nor does it save game progress, but it instead activates the Dejavu Mode.After the remote code puzzle was solved, pressing the F12 key or quitting without using beds starts to give the "bad ending". The "Quit" option of the "Items/Equipment/Notes/Quit menu" starts to display "Niko won't make it out alive." It returns you to the main menu which looks and sounds normal, but selecting "start" is the bad ending, complete with the morbid pop-up message.Upon opening the game after quitting, the Player will find that the title screen has gone dark, the lightbulb in the word "OneShot" has shattered, and Niko is gone and their scarf and hat are all that remains. "My Burden is Dead" plays in place of "My Burden is Light". When the Player selects "start", the room where Niko found themselves in at the beginning of the game is dark and empty, playing disturbing audio in the background instead (this audio is the song "Someplace I Don't Know" in the soundtrack). When the Player attempts to close the game, a pop-up window appears with a message (presumably from the Entity) that says: "You killed Niko." The internal name for this ending is "ENDING_DEAD".

Post-Quitting Runs (Dejavu Mode): Prior to solving the remote code puzzle, the "Quit" option of the "Items/Equipment/Notes/Quit menu" displays "But you only just started playing!". It returns you to the main menu and activates the Dejavu Mode. Pressing the F12 key does the same thing, except it doesn't warn you or ask if you really want to quit to the main menu.At one point, the original game was patched to give infinite attempts at the better endings. After the game closes after receiving the "bad ending", the game resets the save, but any following playthroughs will be in the "ENDING_DEJAVU" mode. Quitting by any means, even using a bed, does technically activate Dejavu mode.In this mode, after Niko leaves the starting bed, the Entity says, "An odd feeling of deja vu overwhelms Niko." and that is the only change.

Return home: If the Player chooses to return the sun, Niko responds that the Player is right, that they just can't leave all of the inhabitants of the World to die, thanks the Player for their help and promises that they'll be okay. They place the lightbulb onto the spire. This scene is followed afterwards by the closing credits of the game in white background and black text as well as images of the residents of the World witnessing the return of their sun. If the Maize seed was planted and given the Miracle Water, the Maize baby appears in the credits. In this ending, the World's sun has been restored, but Niko does not return to their home world, as they did not shatter the lightbulb, which was their only way to return home.If the Player attempts to reopen the game after getting this ending, they will find the title screen's Niko missing, background white and its text black. Upon choosing "start", the game opens to the room where Niko found themselves in at the beginning of the game, empty, repaired and brightly lit with light coming from the World's sun, along with the track "Distant" playing.

Conclusion:

A surreal puzzle adventure game with unique mechanics / capabilities. You are to guide a child through a mysterious world on a mission to restore its long-dead sun. ...Of course, things are never that simple. The world knows you exist. The consequences are real. Saving the world may be impossible. You only have one shot. Although OneShot is not a horror game in the traditional sense, parts of the game may induce some paranoia. Please proceed with caution.