The interactive sitcom 3 out of 10 has received a sequel. Its existence became known last year – the first part ended with a cliffhanger, and the developers promised to further reveal the story in 2021. This time, the episodes will not be released every week – instead, they decided to release the entire season on one day. You can, as before, take breaks between series, or you can go through everything in one gulp – the first option is still preferable.
Speedone
Old acquaintances
We are again transferred to the studio with the self-explanatory name Shovelwork, where the developers are still trying to create a game that will receive ratings higher than 3/10 in the press. The team still brings to life the “brilliant” idea of a runner who, contrary to the laws of the genre, has an ending. However, the development is not going well – either one of the employees decides to convert the office into a studio for motion capture, or the CEO wants to cheer up colleagues by arranging idiotic entertainment for them.
Someday they will succeed.
Here, as in the first season, there are many good-quality jokes that either ridicule or satirically criticize the gaming industry. The boss says that crunches are better called “late gatherings of a large family”, the military organization is trying to recruit gamers (an obvious reference to last year’s case with Twitch ), and they did not forget to laugh at the ubiquitous levels in the sewers. True, there are still fewer really great, memorable moments here than in the first season.
They are saved by mini-games, which have become even more absurd. There is a funny board game, a step-by-step exploration of “dungeons”, a shooter episode, and even a shooting race. As before, we do not take any part in the scenes with dialogues, but in the mini-games there is enough gameplay. If you want – skip them completely; it will not affect the plot. If you want – fulfill all the conditions, go through everything to the end and collect all the stars along the way in order to beat the results of the developers in the final table of records.
Too bad some of the mini-games are too short.
To be continued
Although each episode focuses on a different issue or situation, all episodes relate to each other (and to the first season) through a cross-cutting story. Midge’s protagonist, as we learned last year, was introduced to Shovelwork Studios with one goal in mind – to prevent the team from making a good game. She herself is not happy about this, because she just went to work as an animator, but she can no longer refuse the task. Perhaps it was naive to believe that in the second season the plot will develop, but as a result, the story has advanced literally by a millimeter, and the fifth episode again ended with an interesting cliffhanger and forces us to wait for the continuation for about a year.
The heroes begin to suspect something: either their things disappear, then strange objects appear. But they forget almost everything very quickly – many questions once again remain unanswered. In the first season, it worked better, because everything was new, you got to know the characters better and went through fire, water and copper pipes with them. Now it seems that the creators of 3 out of 10 themselves do not know where to lead the story, so they throw in the smallest details little by little. The main thing is that in the end the fate of Shenmue does not repeat itself , the third part of which came out 20 years later and did not tell anything new by and large – wait for another ten games.
Midge has less screen time than before – she is not even allowed to control.
At the same time, if we consider 3 out of 10 exactly as a sitcom, then the main plot can stretch for at least 15 seasons – this is normal for a television format. Some of the episodes, like on TV, are excellent, sometimes passable. But even from not the most successful episodes (I liked the second least of all), you can squeeze out the maximum: communicate with colleagues at the earliest opportunity, interact with objects, listen to the radio. Also, do not forget to check the last build of the runner created by the team – it changes in each series. On average, an episode lasts about half an hour, and this time can be extended to 40 minutes.
In terms of quality, you can’t find fault with the second season: all the lines are still well-voiced, everything looks stylish – some moments even seem to be a demonstration of the engine’s capabilities. The developers of 3 out of 10 again perform most of the tasks using the Unreal Engine tools – they even animate the characters in it, without resorting to third-party programs.
When there is nowhere to put energy.
The sequel 3 out of 10 turned out to be normal, but I would like a little more – I expected it to be an amazing sequel. Doubts began to creep in quite early – and the humor is no longer so sparkling, and we did not really know anything about the true purpose of Midge. The game is still not without pleasure, and there are hilarious moments for which it is worth spending time on it. But overall, this is just the second season of a good sitcom – no more, no less.
Pros: good jokes and good satire; all the same funny characters, different from each other and perfectly voiced; mini-games have become even more absurd and more fun.
Cons: the main plot did not advance much and again ended with a cliffhanger; the humor doesn’t seem as sparkling as in the first season.
