60 Seconds! Reatomized is kind of an odd game.  The first section is literally a mad dash around a ranch style, Cuban Missile Crisis era home to collect everything that might be of use living out a nuclear attack in a bunker.  The next chunk and majority of the game is a choose-your-own-adventure style series of text based prompts as the player tries to guide the family through starvation and insanity.  Needless to say the game itself is interesting.

The name, 60 Seconds, comes from the fact that that is the amount of time allowed to gather everything possible before the survival section of the game kicks in.  What is interesting, and only noticed after additional playthroughs, is that almost everything available in the rest of the game (save rare “drops” like the cat) are scattered throughout the house in this section–they are just in entirely different areas every time.  Even the super annoying daughter on the tuba; the world is ending, stop playing the tuba and get to the bunker.

The next section, where most of the game is played, is where the player is forced to live off of whatever was managed to be grabbed during those few seconds before they could dive to safety.  The first few days tend to be more about rationing out supplies that were carried down, while the latter chunk are about sending people into the waste and battering with other survivors for items.  Some events that happen, like the “Merry men” appearing, seem to be random dice rolls on the results being good or bad.  Others are more set in stone, like when the man offers a random bag for some items–that bag is going to have the cat in it.

The nature of the game means that the player must weather the storm based on the actions they take during the first section– this of course becomes clearer the more the game is played.  The problem that arises is that those two sections are so drastically different.  The first part of the game is actually interactive, while the rest of the game is literally the player reacting to everything that is thrown at them.  Neither is bad, but they are just entirely different.  Equally disappointing is that the random events normally have very similar outcomes, if not the exact same, after they have been encountered once or twice.

The game, by itself, is fun and interesting.  It is a reflection of Americana that has been long forgotten, mixed in with odd references from anything the developer could think of.  While there are some flaws to the game, like if the character the player has chosen in the beginnings dies the game is over, that could be explained better; the game itself is amazingly sounds and easily lends itself to repeated playthroughs.  While this isn’t something that is going to be an instant best seller, it is clearly something that is going to be a cult classic in no time.  Pick it up.

By: Gillman