What the Bus? A Transit Nightmare is a surreal comedy, written in Twine, created by E. Joyce.
This entry is quick and dreamlike for good reason: it's a
transit nightmare. In your rush to arrive at work on time, you only see a brief
slice of content before arriving at one of many endings. Multiple
playthroughs uncover a much larger range of outcomes.
What the Bus? pulled off a clever trick with my
expectations, although discussing it ventures into spoiler territory: the word
"Nightmare" is not hyperbole. The author has created an experience
where you start off sleepwalking through your daily commute before realizing that you're fully asleep and not walking at all.
The tediously familiar routine of commuting was presented so
effectively that the various detours, delays, and redirections steered me to
some very weird places before I realized what was happening. I like how it
played with the assumptions embedded in city commutes — of course you take everything for granted, you've done it a million
times before.
There's a back button at the bottom of every passage that seemed confusing and unhelpful on my first playthrough. Then I realized that
it was an essential mercy to let me back out of paths leading to endings I'd
already seen. Background colors that change to show the different subway lines
was another nice detail.
I appreciated this entry's use of
procedurally generated text. You will see a lot of familiar passages, retracing
your steps to arrive at new endings, but if you pay attention you'll
see mimes, former schoolteachers, zombies, and other dreamworld inhabitants. I
checked my GPS app every time the option came up, because I knew the results
would be entertaining.
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