I don't think I can bring myself to say "hidden gem" in any context, but this was a really interesting experience.

I can gush forever about the interplay of story and mechanics, and this is a great example of how a quite constrained and abstract experience actually gives the player space to imagine the wider context and narrative elements.

In this case, all you've got is a bunch of nouns flowing through your headspace, and a bunch of nodes representing simple verb phrases that produce, convert, and combine them. 

But by stringing them together in a SpaceChem style pipeline, you construct a resonant narrative such as "I'm taking the negativity of my [Frustration] and turning it into motivating [Energy] so that I can [Travel] and achieve my goal of [Meeting new people]."

The developing stories were actually so evocative that I'm going to declare (minor thematic / experiential) spoilers for the rest of this review as I talk about them in a bit more detail.

So: I played two of the three scenarios, and I actually 'lost' both times. And it was great!

In scenario #1, you're a new immigrant to a big city, and after getting a job and summoning up some motivation, you find yourself torn between your allegiance to your homeland and hopes for a new independent life. I spent so long torn between my obligation and my dreams - and the mundane necessities of paying rent, dealing with xenophobia, and processing my anxieties - that I found myself on the cusp of "success" in both storylines but ultimately undone by my own intransigence.

I think that made a better story than breezing my way through one or the other, and it's a credit to the way the narrative and mechanical tension builds over the course of the scenario.

In scenario #2, the resonance of the mechanics really shines as you play a struggling musician in a struggling relationship. Do you use your relationship as fuel for your songwriting? Can you attend to your partner's emotional needs and foster your relationship, while also dealing with your own demons and staying true to your creative drive? Is there value in embracing, expressing, and exploiting negative emotions, too?

Each section of your psyche has a different title and theme, and supports different types of thought-processing nodes. The actions you take and struggles you encounter can cause new zones to blossom or fade: either by dealing with the root cause of pathological thoughts, or by losing touch with the original source of a happy memory.

In scenario #1, part of how I painted myself in a corner was by "successfully" disavowing my homeland - which caused that entire segment of my pysche to disappear. And then I realised that my industrious work ethic had been derived from thoughts of home and my upbringing, and suddenly I was unable to succeed at my day job and earn the cash I needed for my freedom.

Similarly, in scenario #2 you start with a sector for "The Music". And I realised after some time of playing that almost nothing actually happened there - my thoughts and challenges were never really about the pure concept of the music itself, but about how the rest of my life related to my craft.

As I suggested at the start, I actually really appreciate the ambiguity and neutrality in a lot of the framing because that's where a lot of the story and even gameplay lies. 

That means little things like leaving your Lover unnamed, ungendered, and undefined other than how they relate to you emotionally.

But it's also things like the simple "foreshadowing" achieved by introducing a concept-noun well in advance of when you can actually generate it. 

As the migrant, it's indicated early on that you can grow beyond your past, but it's not until much later - and some dramatic revelations - that you realise just what it takes to light that spark. 

As the musician, you know your end goal is "success", and you can see that there's some clearly desirable traits in your relationship sphere like "understanding" and "finding the right words to say". But it's up to you to figure out and experiment with how to actually achieve them. Maybe if you can't see how to develop your psyche right now, you need to go through some deeper experiences first.

Admittedly, in the more complicated scenario #2, I did find myself a little frustrated constantly flicking through all the nodes I could build. I spent a lot of time desperately trying to develop a mental map of which thoughts and emotions I could combine to get what I needed - but in fairness, that's part of the challenge and part of the experience.

I really recommend giving this one a go to see if it resonates with you, too... or if I'm just reading too much into it.