Can Androids Pray: Blue

Let me paint the scene for you: Can Androids Pray: Blue is about a couple of android mechs who are badly wounded after what appears to be a devastating war. They can't move their arms or get up, so the two spend their last remaining hours talking about what it means to live and die. As one of them curses at the inevitability of death, the other finds comfort in the Bible and what they've learned from the teachings of God. This is the whole game.

I feel like I should confess right from the start that I'm not religious. It's not something I talk about in my reviews very often because it's rarely relevant, but it definitely is in this case. I get the feeling that Can Androids Pray: Blue is intended to be a moving and thought-provoking story about coming to grips with your own mortality, but this sophomore release from aPriori Digital is so pre-occupied with preaching at me that it never connects on an emotional level.

This is what I would call a dialog simulator. The two androids can't move, so all you're doing is choosing what Cortney says to Beatrice and waiting for the sun to rise. The whole thing takes about twenty minutes to complete and feels more like a short story than a game.

The truth is, I'm not sure who this is for. I'm not opposed to this type of narrative-focused game, even with religious themes, but the story is neither compelling nor deep enough to fill up the all-too-brief runtime. I would say that believers may find a deeper meaning in all of this, but the profanity-laced script seems out of place if that's the target audience. The whole game left me completely baffled.

I'm not saying that Can Androids Pray: Blue is a bad game, but it's definitely not for me. The scenario these two mechs find themselves in is interesting, but the conversation is too preachy and the writing left me cold. This is a short game that lacks the emotional weight you would expect from these heavy topics. Even at a brisk 20 minutes, I couldn't wait for this game to end.