1213 is a three-part computer game created by Ben Croshaw using the AGS game creation system. 1213 is a science fiction platform game for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.

Story

1213 tells the story of the torment and eventual escape of an amnesiac victim of experimentation, codenamed 1213, from his cell, freed by his unseen tormentor (some kind of doctor, judging by his ability to interact so freely with his 'patients'). On escaping, 1213 sees that the facility's other guinea pigs, all similarly named to himself, have also escaped, all of them having turned into zombies, while at the same time almost all the employees have subsequently been viciously slaughtered.

Gameplay

1213 is mainly notable only for being a reproduction of the traditional platformer experience using an engine originally designed to be used in the production of point and click adventure games. Metaphorically, this can be seen as the equivalent of making checkers out of chess.

Graphically, 1213 is very simply animated and drawn... much less visually impressive than Yahtzee's other works.

Musically, 1213 draws from RPG Maker MIDI files... and as such the fantasy themes do not mesh well with the science fiction atmosphere.

Gameplay wise, many elements of the game reflect the original Prince of Persia gameplay mechanics, though not nearly as fluidly, combined with gunplay of a sort found in its obviously influential ancestors Another World and Flashback. However, this gunplay is marred by buggy hit detection and erratic firing speed. Each additional part in the series generated a new ability or gameplay tweak of some kind.

As with many of Ben Croshaw's games, 1213 is very, very graphically violent.

The 1213 series drew heavy criticism from Ben's existing fanbase and is considered as such to be his epsilon minus work.

External links

Official website

Adventure Game Studio page