This is because Encodya’s gameplay is fairly standard, and comes carrying all the familiar frustrations of point-and-click adventure games. Perhaps where Encodya’s ambition most widely misses the mark is with Monkey Island. Like I said, Encodya has something deeply unsettling about it. It feels like any game that dips a toe in the sci-fi genre pulls from Blade Runner. It almost does feel like a mix of these three elements, but it needs to add something fresh. Encodya gets close, but unfortunately it’s missing a certain je ne sais quoi. If you take three beloved pop culture staples and combine them, you better have something outstanding. If ever there was an assertive boast, there it is. The world is broken and Tina and SAM-53 are just the team to fix it.Įncodya’s official website suggests that the game is a mix between Blade Runner, Monkey Island, and Studio Ghibli.

The streets are littered with humans completely enthralled by VR headsets-what SAM-53 calls “the opium of the people.” Everywhere you turn, you are greeted by odious hopelessness. It goes beyond the typical dystopian bleakness and starts to feel flat-out disturbing. There’s a creeping unease that settles in during Encodya. She lives under a makeshift shelter on a rooftop smack in the middle of a downtown city, assumedly somewhere in Japan, but called Neo Berlin. Encodya opens on a typical day in Tina and SAM-53’s life. Like all endearing robots, he behaves in a far more clumsy, human manner than he has any right to. The story follows Tina and her giant robot protector, SAM-53.

Encodya review