Californium

Darjeeling · Feb 17, 2016

N/A

About

Berkeley, 1967. You are Elvin Green, a writer whose career is not better than his sentimental life. Besides, the day starts badly : your wife Thea left you a break up letter. As for Eddy, your editor, he summons you : "you are a writer who does not write" - you should find yourself another editor. Your world is falling apart. Too much acid and cheap booze ? Too many sleepless nights stuck to your typewriter, powerless to tackle your first novel ? Your poor mental health is collapsing. Luckily this nightmarish world is unstable, you can extract yourself from it and thus access another reality! You have nothing to lose!

Trailers & screenshots

Scores by platform

PC

Critic 5.5 (4 critics) · Gamer 6.9

Critic reviews

Video Gamer
Steven Burns · Feb 19, 2016
6.0
There's much to admire about Californium, and there's no doubting its focus on the intersection between fantasy and reality gives it a style and atmosphere that pulls the player in. Once there, however, it sadly can't build on what is an impressive opening, and an obvious love of the renowned author who inspired it.
Read review from Video Gamer (opens in a new tab)
Cubed3
Ofisil · May 30, 2016
5.0
Californium is a labour of love that didn't even try to do a fine job at using the thing it loves the most. It makes promises of offering a plot-heavy adventure that is heavily inspired by Philip K. Dick, when it's just marginally influenced by it, and, even worse, gameplay-wise, it is a frustrating hidden object game, which becomes less so due to its gorgeous, wallpaper-worthy visuals.
Read review from Cubed3 (opens in a new tab)
4players.de
Jörg Luibl · Feb 16, 2016
3.9
Tolles Thema, schlechtes Spiel. Californium hat mich als Freund von Storytelling-Experimenten und Philip K. Dick nur in der ersten halben Stunde zumindest neugierig gemacht. Was danach folgte war zunächst schleichende, dann die totale Ernüchterung. Ich kann nicht abtauchen in diese „Hommage“, sondern erlebe einen Bruch zwischen primitiver Symbolsuche in Egosicht sowie eingestreuten Zitaten und Kommentaren aus dem Fundus des Science-Fiction-Meisters.
Read review from 4players.de (opens in a new tab)
Gameblog.fr
Camille Allard · Feb 17, 2016
7.0
Fonctionnant à la fois comme une sorte de préambule et de point final au documentaire diffusé par Arte, c'est une ode à la science fiction moderne et à l'un de ses plus dignes représentants. Le seul regret est finalement le manque d'interactions avec le décor et l'histoire en général. On aimerait pouvoir faire des choix mais on est sans cesse contraint de suivre un chemin (trop) défini.
Read review from Gameblog.fr (opens in a new tab)