Alice previously told us we should be excited about Californium [official site]- she wasn’t wrong. I’ve finished the short-ish (maybe two hours) game, and have intersected my conflicting realities in such a way to be able to tell you wot I think.
Californium, in its cold, quiet way, has a lot to say. You’re Elvin Green, failed writer, failed copywriter, bereaved father, and increasingly distant husband. Living in 1960s California, you’ve turned to booze and pills rather than – well, rather than anything else. And in quick succession your wife leaves you, your publisher fires you, and your friends walk away from you. What happens next can only be interpreted through this lens. What happens next is the TV starts talking to you, holes start appearing in reality, and you begin to distort the world to reveal other worlds beneath it.