The game The Other Line follows the story of an explorer trapped inside a cave. The player is thrown right into the story at the beginning of the game by the use of text and of the opening scene. The text is written as though the explorer is talking to themself, letting the player know what they were doing before the beginning of the game. The opening then shows the situation the explorer has found themself in. The design of the opening scene does a good job in showing how dire the explorer’s situation is. The space is small and mostly empty with only the explorer’s bag, an old crate, a crowbar, and a large boulder that is trapping the explorer inside the cave. The player can move around the cave as they please, though there is nowhere else for them to go.
The story is continued once the player begins exploring the cave and interacts with the objects inside. The player can pick up the crowbar, which opens the crate and provides more items that progress the story. The most important of these newly revealed items are the journal, the bed, and the walkie talkie. Using the journal makes text appear in the form of journal entries, detailing the misfortune of another person who was trapped inside the cave before the explorer was. It is implied though these journal entries that this first person was unable to escape and died inside the cave. Using the bed makes time move in the game, allowing the story to move forward. The walkie talkie lets the explorer make contact with another person who is in a similar situation, trapped in a cave with no way to escape. Using the bed and the walkie talkie, the story continues. The explorer and the person on the other end of the line continue to have conversations as time goes on and their situations go from bad to worse. Eventually there is a final call between the explorer and the other person trapped in the cave. Here we learn that the explorer has been talking to someone who died in the same cave decades earlier and that this person is also the one who left the journal from the beginning of the game. This final conversation also opens up a small opening near the boulder that allows the player to move to a new section of the cave. There is where the bones of the other person who was stuck inside the cave can be found. The game ends after this scene, and text fills the screen with the explorer’s thoughts as they die next to their friend.
No skill is required to play this game as it is mostly story based. The player only needs to be able to move around the screen and be able to locate the objects that, upon interaction, move the story forward. Nothing in the game prevents the player from moving forward in the game, and most objects that further the game are fairly easy to find.