‘K Station’ is a creepy text-command puzzle-solving mystery

I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve been in my share of weird conversations, or forced my way through small talk. Sometimes it can be rather hard to interact with those around you. Thankfully, we can usually withdraw to the comforts of home, and lock ourselves away from any social responsibilities when we are feeling overwhelmed. Take a moment to imagine what things would be like if you couldn’t escape people so easily. What if you were trapped in one place with a group of co-workers? With all of the varying personalities around the world, it’s easy to understand how people could end up with anthropophobia (fear of people). This is just one of the uneasy feelings you explore in an upcoming indie mystery from Maya Games. K Station thrusts you into a strange story line filled with interesting dialogue and many puzzles to solve.

You’ll take control of Maya, a government employee and lab assistant who works in a mysterious enclosure called K Station. The game begins on New Year’s Day in the year 2319. Feeling a bit hungover from the night before, you head out into the many rooms of K Station to visit your coworkers and do your job. The new year has apparently brought forth a new atmosphere, since many of Maya’s colleagues are exhibiting rather strange behavior. A lot of the dialogue for each individual you meet seems a little disjointed, and it immediately creates an eerie tension. As you make your way through the K Station, you will unravel side story lines and unique points-of-view. One by one, the coworkers you thought you knew so well begin to morph into completely different identities. The people you shared so much time with become strangers that you know nothing about.

It’s almost as if K Station is a living, breathing entity. Rooms start to close off and the individuals who called the station home begin to disappear. You soon find yourself sifting through puzzles and trying to escape the station before it can claim you as its latest victim. You’ll need to grab items, discover clues, and flex your brain to solve some of the unique science-based mind-benders that Maya Games has in store. Conversing with crew mates is key to unraveling the mystery, and you’ll need to pay close attention and observe your surroundings.

From an artistic standpoint, K Station is rather basic in design, and that actually adds another layer of unease to the release. The characters lack faces and don’t exhibit much body language. That means all of the emotion is carried through dialogue and descriptions. The music does a fantastic job in creating a relaxing, yet, spooky environment. Developers haven’t released much information regarding the release, but we do know that gameplay is done via detailed typed actions. If you want to talk to a specific character you must type “speak to” and the name of the character in question. You can also pick up items, examine them, solve puzzles, uncover information, and move to different areas through a series of typed commands. It’s a tried-and-true method that has been relevant in text-based adventures for some time.

K Station is shaping up to be a very interesting and mysterious adventure. Developers are being fairly tight-lipped concerning the project story line, but are steadily releasing screenshots and video snippets on the company Twitter account. It will be very exciting to see what kind of story K Station will tell, as it currently looks like a video-game version of The Thing, sans the intense gore. Maya Game’s vision just recently received the Steam Greenlight stamp of approval. Hopefully, we will see the gameplay expanded a little more in the near future. For now, K Station has left us wanting more, and I’m chomping at the bit to solve the interesting mystery. If you’re interested in getting more information, be sure to check out the dedicated website here. You can also follow Maya Games on Twitter to keep up with future updates.