Superliminal: Perception is Reality

Can a simple idea executed with focus and innovative gameplay design challenge perceptions not just within a game, but shift an entire mindset towards the real world?  

The message of the game may not resonate with everyone, but the ideas and creativity displayed throughout create an experience I think anyone can engage with. At just around 3 hours, the game throws a variety of expertly executed environmental puzzles at you that force you to think outside of the box without overstaying its welcome. The puzzles alone justify the existence of the game, but there is a story there for those that wish to engage with it. It is earnest and sincere, and I think you get from the story what you are willing to put into it.

Spoiler warning here on out.

"Your life will always be a struggle and you will always have problems. But today, you had the chance to see things differently. Even though it meant facing obstacles that seemed impossible at first, you thought outside the box - and you overcame them." So says Dr. Glenn Pierce, your doctor who guides you (and your character) through the game. His melodic Scottish brogue emerges at regular intervals from radios throughout the levels, and his unwavering calmness keeps you moving towards an unknown destination. The destination, and the journey to get there, turns out to be exactly what it was supposed to be, with Dr. Glenn Pierce opening his final monologue with: "by now you may have realised that all of this has happened exactly the way it was supposed to". As a player you know this to be the case, you're playing a video game that was designed to give you a specific experience, but as the character you may have believed there was a deeper mystery to find amongst the puzzles.

"Perception is reality" is plastered throughout the game, both in words, in gameplay, and woven into the theme. Objects in the world that look big, are big, a box that looks real, is real, an apple that looks close, is close, red splatters on the floor that look like blood, are blood. Or are they? About halfway through the game the atmosphere takes on what I perceived as a sinister undertone. Dark, brooding lights, no music, concrete industrial side rooms. Red liquid splashed across the floor and walls. I would wager that most people thought it was blood, including myself. What lies in the underbelly of this organisation that purports to exist to help you? Well just a few minutes later you are back in a bright, airy room, classical music playing again, and you realise that the red liquid you thought was blood (maybe) originated from a bucket of red paint. Perception really is reality, however briefly, and the game plays beautifully with our expectations as gamers, and as human beings.

Whilst life's challenges are not laid out in a logical progression expertly designed by game developers, we can learn that problems are not always the problem, our own mindset can prevent us from moving forward. "The problem is not that the problems we face can't be solved: The problem is that we become so afraid of failure that we refuse to see our problems from a new perspective." In a world where we increasingly consider mindfulness, mental wellbeing and neural diversity as important facets of existence, we should embrace the idea that by widening our perspective beyond what we see in the moment, maybe the problems themselves cease to be problems at all.