Breakout 13 is a Chinese FMV game based on real events. A dubious treatment centre claimed to cure Internet and other addictions by aversion therapy like electric shocks. The spoken dialogue in the game is in Chinese, there are English subtitles which contain very few errors. Breakout 13 was released in two sections on Steam, this review is for the whole game.

I played Breakout 13 under Parallels on a M1 Macbook. The only glitch was an issue with the background in one place which didn't affect being able to play the game. This is an expansive high quality FMV game, there are a lot of actors and places to see as well as plenty of game interaction. It's more than just choosing a dialogue option in between video clips. Breakout 13 has a number of chapters and two possible endings (you make a choice right towards the end which determines which you proceed to). It's worth playing both endings, one has more gameplay the other more fun, but both leave story threads hanging. You only need to replay the end of the previous chapter to get the second ending.

You play Zhang Yang whose mother sends him to the treatment centre to be cured of skipping school to play video games. As Zhang Yang in your attempts to leave the treatment centre you will have to make difficult choices; how much will you collaborate with the oppressive regime of the centre, will you betray other students who trust you to be released. The FMV format makes these choices more immediate and more poignant.

The treatment centre is one to be left as soon as possible. Thuggish guards treat the students as army recruits to be beaten into shape. Students are rewarded for informing on each other. The Nero-like director when he's not administering electric shocks is composing odes for his victims to sing his praises. I don't know how accurate the portrayal of the treatment centre is, it may well be close to the reality. This game is firmly on the side of the victims.

The gameplay is varied and fits naturally into Zhang Yang's story. There are dialogue choices to be made which influence what happens and your relationships with the NPCs in the game. Some challenges have multiple solutions. There are timed puzzles where you search rooms for objects and clues - the time limits are ample, and the game highlights where to search and where you've found what there was to find. You get to watch some CCTV footage and listen to bugs to gather clues. There are a few puzzles where you need to unlock computers or phones or safes.

There are also sequence where you need to quickly drag the mouse across the screen in a certain direction, or click quickly on a circle, or during the aversion therapy click on the phrases the director wants you to say. I managed these and I'm not very good at action sequences. Harder to me was you need to ensure other people like you enough, or don't suspect you too much, to proceed in the game. The dialogue choices you make are critical here and it's not always obvious which is the right choice.

In mitigation Breakout 13 lets you see each chapter as a flowchart of different scenes, and to retry any scene. This is very neat and means you can easily progress past some difficult points without replaying the whole game. Also there is some leeway before you're suspected too much, or people refuse to trust you. This going back in time to rewrite what you did does interrupt the narrative flow but is a clever feature.

The instrumental background music in Breakout 13 is there to supplement the ambient sounds. There are chords on a guitar, notes on a piano. At one point you get a Chinese rap song full of youthful angst against unfeeling parents, the lyrics are translated.

Breakout 13 has achievements, I got most not all. As you play you also unlock collectibles or sets of videos for the key characters in the game. These are well worth watching through as they add depth to the story. You can also unexpectedly give flowers or throw eggs at characters in the game, you don't pay to do this and you can see how many flowers or eggs the different characters have received. Your character Zhang Yang is not the most popular. I didn't think he was the most interesting character in the game.

Breakout 13 will be a different game to a Chinese person than a Westerner. In traditional Oriental culture parents push their children to study hard, Zhang Yang would be seen as an unfilial son needing correction. Daughters can be seen as disposable assets. China is changing, it now has its own slacker culture called "lying flat".

For me Breakout 13 is the biggest and best FMV game I've played. A keeper.