American Arcadia review: a brilliant adventure that’ll keep you on the edge of your seat

Philipp Rüegg

15.11.2023

Translation: Patrik Stainbrook

American Arcadia is the most famous reality show in the world. Only, the participants don’t know that they’re part of it. Trevor is one of them. In this cinematic adventure of a game, I help him escape.

Trevor Hills is the most boring person in American Arcadia. This reality series is like The Truman Show, only much bigger. And with the difference that not one, but all participants act as involuntary entertainment for millions of television viewers. Trevor has only one viewer, and that’s bad. Anyone who doesn’t generate ratings in American Arcadia will be terminated. His only viewer – Angela Solano – wants to prevent this and helps him as he tries to escape.

Sometimes running, sometimes hacking

In American Arcadia, I alternate between playing Trevor and Angela. Trevor’s sections are in 2.5D and play like typical puzzle platformers in which I progress from left to right. For Angela, the game switches to a first-person perspective. But instead of skill, my grey matter is required.

Trevor’s American Arcadia is a retro-futuristic 70s metropolis contained within a gigantic dome. Flared trousers and bright colours mingle with drones and talking cleaning robots. In the real world, which is where Angela lives, it’s 2023.

Trevor lives his idyllic and uneventful life until Angela tells him the truth about American Arcadia. Thus begins a turbulent escape that keeps me invested the whole way through. In the beginning, the aim is to shake off pursuers looking to accompany Trevor on a supposed cruise. Angela calls them the Beastie Boys because they look like the hip-hop trio in the music video for Sabotage. Naturally, Trevor can do little with this 90s pop culture reference. But he’s too busy escaping anyway.

His escape takes the lanky office worker behind the scenes of the Big Brother-like show. When running and climbing no longer help, Angela comes into play. I press a button to switch to her, where I watch Trevor from a screen. Angela works as a stage technician at Walton Media, the company behind American Arcadia, so Trevor is always on her radar. Angela is a talented hacker. She helps Trevor by unlocking doors and turning off lights so that he can sneak past security guards unnoticed. From time to time, she even controls a crane to help Trevor find an escape route across a rooftop.

When Angela isn’t helping Trevor directly, she has to gain access to restricted areas at Walton Media. At first, I have to add a video loop to a few cameras so that I can give myself admin rights in the server room without being noticed. Later on, the puzzles are trickier and I have to reprogram circuits or snake my way through laser barriers in my very best Mission Impossible impression. But unlike for its Scientologist hero Tom Cruise, the lasers are invisible and I have to memorise the pattern beforehand.

Multitasking

Often, both teamwork and multitasking are required. It doesn’t take long before Angela also catches the eye of Walton Media. The head of security turns up unannounced in her office just as Trevor is about to sneak to safety on a tourist bus. People from outside Arcadia can visit the reality show – and more importantly, leave again.

The perspective switches back to Angela. I continue to see and control Trevor on her monitor and try to sneak him past the guards. I have to time my dashes when the water fountains at the bus station splash upwards and cover me for a moment. As Angela, I simultaneously answer the security chief’s probing questions. These moments stand out in the game, made by Spanish studio Out of the Blue Games.

Both Trevor and Angela’s passages have a great flow and are only occasionally annoying due to unnecessary trial and error. As Angela, I had to spend about half an hour removing incriminating Post-it notes again and again, only to be caught every time by my snooping boss. At some point I finally realised I had to draw the curtains. As Trevor, I was often hit by sleeping darts from drones because someone, somewhere happened to see me. But as soon as you know what to do, it’s pretty straightforward. You will never be bored.

Charming protagonists and a cinematic feel

The two main characters are really likeable. As they’re usually in radio contact with each other, they exchange more than just vital information. Trevor in particular is eager to find out what lies behind the façade of Arcadia. The further the game progresses, the more he turns from an inconspicuous creature on the hamster wheel into a quick-witted go-getter. Right from the start, Angela isn’t one to mince her words and is constantly at loggerheads with her loyal boss.

The cutscenes also craft a great atmosphere. The game is regularly interrupted by interviews, recorded television programmes or Arcadia advertising campaigns. In them, I learn more about the creation of this gilded cage, Walton’s machinations and what the world thinks of American Arcadia. Here, the game isn’t stingy with social criticism and displays how callous, voyeuristic and sensationalist we are.

Arcadia consists of varied and impressive locations. Visually, the game is beautiful and cinematic – despite the simplistic art style. Even without noses, the faces are more expressive than those mannequins in Starfield. The voice cast also contributes greatly to the atmosphere. Above all Yuri Lowenthal as Trevor and Krizia Bajos as Angela.

Verdict: fast-paced to the end

American Arcadia is refreshingly different. The mix of 2.5D platforming and puzzles in first-person perspective provide plenty of variety. It never gets boring, Trevor is too busy with spectacular escape manoeuvres for that. Meanwhile, Angela hacks her way through lax security systems and uncovers the secret machinations of the Walton television empire.

At around seven hours, the game is relatively short. But this keeps the tempo high with new locations, puzzles and revelations right to the end. I could barely put down the game.

The George Orwell-inspired world, the unscrupulous media corporation and viewers who want to be entertained at all costs provide an exciting backdrop. It’s also one of the biggest gaming surprises of the year.

American Arcadia is available for PC. The game was provided to me by Raw Fury.

Philipp Rüegg

Senior Editor

Philipp.Rueegg@digitecgalaxus.ch

Being the game and gadget geek that I am, working at digitec and Galaxus makes me feel like a kid in a candy shop – but it does take its toll on my wallet. I enjoy tinkering with my PC in Tim Taylor fashion and talking about games on my podcast http://www.onemorelevel.ch. To satisfy my need for speed, I get on my full suspension mountain bike and set out to find some nice trails. My thirst for culture is quenched by deep conversations over a couple of cold ones at the mostly frustrating games of FC Winterthur. more

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