izigame.me

Heads up, this game does contain rapidly flashing colors in the ending sequence so be aware of that if you are photosensitive.
What's the Gameplay?
You play as a new user joining into NATEM, an alternate version of early 90's Internet filled with vaporware and chatroom tropes. Your goal is to explore the NATEM which can be done by ranking up in status and gaining as many likes as possible. If I had to simplify the gameplay, it would be "collect-a-thon"-focused as you need to collect likes and rank up in order to progress to new servers. These likes are accumulated through walking into "thumbs-up" emojis in the world, liking pop-up ads in each server, shopping items, taking pictures, and completing sidequests.
There is extra emphasis on player exploration since secret spots and paths exist in some areas that players can stumble upon by accident. Players are given tools to access new paths and solve puzzles standing in the player's way. Some of these include a Hyperlinker which allows you to grapple onto specific grapple points, a Bookmarker which allows you to teleport back to a marked location, and a Camera that may or may not let you see things hidden in the world. Expect to be walking around and exploring as much as you can for the majority of your playtime and the rest is spent on puzzles and sidequests.
How About the Aesthetics & Vibes?
If you couldn't tell from the store page, the game's style is based on vaporware, which can be described as the aesthetic for the online webscape in the 1990's to early 2000's. It is a cultural mix of Internet nostalgia, technicolor, retro 80's stuff, and a hint of psychedelics. The music is perhaps the best part of this style as you listen to vaporware music while exploring the NATEM.
Since the game is based on vaporware and the early Internet, it's not a surprise that nearly everything in the game is a nod to the old computer days. As I mentioned earlier, each area/server is like a chatroom where players and NPCs walk around and chatting each other up. There are pop-up ads and even malware appearing everywhere for you to interact with in the online world. The user interface, menu, and the toolbar feel deeply inspired by how Windows 3 looked.
What to Watch Out For?
A major nitpick I have is how annoying it is to quit the game. For the first part, I am irritated with how the Quit setup is with the Nah button being right in the center while the Yeah button is at the bottom right after selecting Quit. It is funny the first time, I will admit. The second part is how even the confirmation to Quit won't work and you'll be stuck on the prompt to Quit screen until you force-close the game.
Another major nitpick is the lack of a Sprint and Fast Travel system. I wasn't lying when I say that a majority of the time will be spent walking as you walk between servers and explore. A sprint feature would have made exploration much more bearable, especially true for some platforming sections. There is a lot of backtracking involved too to access areas and secrets you couldn't before unlocking some upgrades.
An issue of geniune concern is the risk of softlocking yourself. In one of the sections, you are required to gather at least 1 million credits to access an upgrade for your camera. One of the sidequests that gives you a decent sum of money to help with this can be softlocked. I could not finish it but luckily the game gives you enough leeway to get the money from other sidequests and hidden areas.
Recommended?
Of course I'd still recommend the game despite my complaints. The aesthetics, vibe, and exploration-focused gameplay outweight the cons that I found in my playthrough. I highly recommend it for the vaporware and retro vibes if you're into that, or if you're into adventure games that let you explore on your own for the most part.