How much control should players have over the game they're playing? Should the player be responsible for micromanaging the decisions of every citizen in a city? Should they set the course for a single hero's journey? Are there times when the most engaging gameplay is more passive, allowing the player to exert only minimal influence on the story as it unfolds?

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We Are OFK is a gorgeous music biopic / visual novel with minimal player intervention other than dialog choices. Despite this more passive style of gameplay, We Are OFK tells an enthralling story about youth, art, and the hardships of following one's dream in a world that often doesn't care. With so much setting the game apart from other video games, it's easy to see those elements that make the game great. Here are some of the things we loved about We Are OFK.

7 Beautiful Art

We Are OFK - Character in Lounge

We Are OFK is an incredibly good-looking game. This is absolutely necessary since it's a visual novel / interactive film that borders on not being a game at all. If the visuals didn't hold up, players wouldn't be willing to stare at them for hours, as they do with the best games in the genre.

Thankfully, We Are OFK is undeniably gorgeous. Virtually every artistic choice made by its design team is spot-on, creating a soft, mesmerizing version of LA that it's impossible not to get sucked into. The absence of conventional gameplay doesn't matter when things look this good. The excellence of the game's imagery includes its fantastic character designs as well as its simple but compelling setting, and the overall visual effect is as cohesive as it is powerful.

6 Captivating Soundtrack

We Are OFK - Character Recording

We Are OFK is about a fictional band, so the music has to be awesome, and it is. Not only are the band's actual sounds great, but the music and sound design throughout are stellar. Perhaps the best thing about the soundtrack is its ability to effortlessly capture and create moods. There's a lot of pressure on the soundtrack in this game, not only because the story revolves around a band (making music an obvious centerpiece) but also because the story is one that lends itself to musical manipulation.

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It's no secret that a song can affect the way players feel about a scene, and with such a delicate emotional story--the aspirations of young people crashing headlong into capitalist demands--the wrong choice of music could have spoiled many impactful moments, effectively killing the entire project. Thanks to the game's wonderful score, however, that never happens, and players are instead treated to one of the most soothing soundtracks around.

5 Storytelling

We Are OFK - Driving

We Are OFK is presented episodically, and while it may not be the longest story of its kind, it still has plenty to offer. While there are many games that have been released or been divided into episodes, We Are OFK treats the idea in a more concrete and literal fashion. Not only is the player's input limited, allowing them to experience many events as a viewer rather than an active participant--with all the pleasure and worry that may cause--it directly mirrors the experience of streaming a show.

When the player pauses the game, a timer is even displayed at the bottom of the screen to show how much time is left to the current episode. It would be easy to get too carried away by this premise and make the entire experience gimmicky rather than engaging, but We Are OFK never crosses that line.

4 Characterizations

We Are OFK - Friends in Living Room

Luca is a game developer who dreams of making music but struggles with his anxiety. Carter is a VFX genius who struggles with bottling their feelings. Itsumi is dissatisfied with her current job as a social media manager and dreams of being a concert pianist. Jey is a sometimes intimidating audio producer who's wary of the friendships between the others.

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The game's characterizations feel authentic at all times, which couldn't be more important for this kind of game. The motivations, backstories, and emotions of the characters are convincingly developed and consistently maintained. There are no jarring moments in which a character's actions seem completely inexplicable and wrong. Decisions are always grounded in what the characters want and what they're feeling, which makes immersing oneself in the story easy.

3 Music Video Minigames

We Are OFK - Recording Music

Each chapter ends with a minigame centered around the band's newest single. These games are all basic, both in their concept and their controls, and there aren't any major stakes associated with performance in them. While some players may be turned off by this chill presentation, it perfectly suits We Are OFK. Great slice-of-life games usually have more interactivity than this, but that's not for the worse.

This isn't a frantic party game: it's a relationship simulator and visual novel about the fruition and failure of dreams. White-knuckle platforming and button-mashing don't have a place here, so the fact that the music video minigames keep things breezy is to the game's credit. The relaxed pacing and limited control of the game aren't bugs; they're features, and perhaps nowhere is this more evident than in the music video minigames.

2 Minimalist Gameplay

We Are OFK - Texting

The gameplay in We Are OFK is one of its most divisive features because, from a certain point of view, there almost isn't any. Mechanically, the player's only engagement with the story is limited almost exclusively to choosing the occasional dialog option. This includes both spoken and text options, the former using a 10-second timer to force the player to make decisions at the moment rather than dwell on them the way they can with texts.

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The player's lack of control over events directly mirrors the protagonists' lack of control over their careers and lives. Yes, they make critical choices along the way that dramatically shape events, but they're as often at the mercy of other people's decisions and the whims of the world as they are picking the fruits of their own decision-making. Putting the player in a similar position allows them to experience an emotional and artistic journey just as fraught and exciting.

1 Debug

We Are OFK - Dialog

Debug is a holographic cat, which instantly makes him one of the coolest characters in the game. An adorable black void with glowing blue eyes and a swishy tale, semi-translucent thanks to his holographic nature, Debug is just the cute and iconic mascot the game needs.

It's a testament to the game's writing that it does Debug justice, letting players enjoy the cyber-cat's presence without distracting from the emotional highs and lows of the main cast and the plot developments that are supposed to be the focus. That said, it's always nice to have another great video game cat.

We Are OFK is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, and Nintendo Switch.

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