Developed by Wahoo Studios
Published by Oath Inc
Released for Xbox One (2/28/2019)
One Leaves is an anti-tobacco game sponsored by the non-profit organization Oath Inc and developed by Wahoo Studios. The game was released for Xbox One in February 2019 and is a free download. It's rare to see a free game that's not riddled with micro-transactions and when I saw this in the store, I thought it was some sort of horror game. It should go without saying that I was disappointed when I found it what it was, but I've already gone so far as to download and play it so I might as well post a review for it too.
Upon booting up One Leaves for the first time, you're greeted with that box that asks for permissions (click here for more on that). Once you start the game proper, you find yourself in a room with 3 other kids, each of you behind their own fence. An announcer speaks over the intercom, informing you that only 1 of you will leave while the others are doomed to stay. After the mysterious voice tells you to begin, a door opens up and the race begins. The objective is to simply make it through each area as quick as possible. It's all supposed to be some sort of metaphor for smokers, where some stat said that 1 of 4 smokers successfully quit.
There are 3 levels to complete, starting out at the school, then to the hospital and ending up with the sewers. There are red wires on the floor, with one that leads to the exit and any others will lead to that level's objective. The school level requires you to escape from a maze of bookshelves in the library and make it through a never-ending hallway. Both sound much cooler than they are in play and the hallway can easily be completed using a glitch in the doorway. The hospital level starts off with a switch puzzle that grants you a flashlight, but if you turn the brightness up a few notches the flashlight is irrelevant. After this you will enter the morgue, where there are 4 drawers where the bodies are stored. 1 of these 4 contains a path to the room which has the switch that opens the exit while the other 3 lead you to another part of the hospital, where you'll have to re-enter the morgue and guess again. This is randomized each playthrough, so you'll never know which one the switch could be hiding behind.
The 3rd and final level in One Leaves takes place in the sewers. This level is more like a giant maze, with lots of 2-ways that split off with one end leading nowhere. This is by far the most confusing level, but with that there's still not much to it. Make it through the maze by following the exit signs and if you've completed the game fast enough then you are the one to escape. If you took too long it shows the smokers lounge, stating that you're doomed to stay there forever.
The levels are detailed and grimy-looking but the use of the graphics engine is just not very good, with lots of half-assed lighting and textures up close look awful.. I was quite surprised when I saw this ran on the Unreal engine and was released in 2019; it's easily among the worst looking games I've seen on the engine. That said there are some rather grotesque things to see, including some charred, coughing lungs in the hospital and all kinds of nasty teeth in the walls of the sewers. It's the kind of stuff that wouldn't feel out of place in a Silent Hill game, unfortunately the game fancies itself as more of a race than horror experience so these nasty areas are just sort of there to make you not want to smoke. Personally I think the message would have been more effective if they just dropped the racing thing altogether and made it a straight-up horror game depicting the struggles of addiction and consequences of smoking. I'm sure with this being a free title, the developers were certainly limited in time and resources which definitely shows in the finished product.
The only reason I could see anybody delving into One Leaves are those looking for easy gamerscore. While the price tag is free and it is easy, it's going to cost you around 5-6 hours of your time. A single run of the game takes around 10 minutes, but the achievement to play through the game 20 times will really test your patience, as can be seen from that particular achievements completion ratio of 0.66% (as of April 2020 at least), which is super-low for a free game with easy achievements.
One Leaves had an admirable message to convey as there's doubt smoking is bad and children should be made aware of that. That message got lost somewhere in the process of creating this game and rather than an anti-smoking game it feels more like a Z-grade horror effort. The other children are only seen briefly running around in upcoming passages, but once you round the corner they're mysteriously gone. Being unable to actually see who you''re racing against makes it a bit hard to determine if you're actually in the lead, making this a race in the loosest sense of the word. After playing One Leaves, you'll probably want to light up a stogie just in defiance of how stupid the whole thing is. If you want a good laugh, check out some of the user reviews in the Microsoft Store.
Final Verdict: One Leaves ties to convey an anti-tobacco message and while it has few creepy areas to see, the whole thing is ultimately a waste of your time. Those looking for free gamerscore only need apply, but even with that beware this game will cost you 4-6 hours of your life to complete.
Related Links:
Get One Leaves - Microsoft Store
Wahoo Studios - Official Site
Oath Inc - Official Site
One Leaves - Metacritic
One Leaves - GameFAQs
One Leaves - True Achievements
One Leaves Achievement Guide - Xbox Achievements
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