Gnosia

Review

Originally released on PS Vita and Nintendo Switch, Gnosia is a social deduction game in the form of visual novel. Inspired by Werewolf, Mafia and Among Us, this is a compeletely single player experience that proves how social deduction games can be played alone.

Gnos, an unknown alien parasite, has infected the crew members of a drifting spaceship. Stuck in a never ending time loop, they are now forced to re-live every moment trying to find who the Gnosia is. Each day the crew will meet, discuss and vote the most suspicious person who will be put into cold sleep, while every night the Gnosia will kill one member of their choice. It’s up to you to discover why all of this is happening and how to stop this alien lifeform from taking control of the ship.

The Gnosia is not the only threat though. There is another dangerous enemy known as the Bug, which apparently can destroy the entire universe. If the Bug manages to survive until a winner has been decided among the humans and Gnosia, the victory goes to the Bug. Apart from this, there are a few other roles that are crucial to the gameplay. The Engineer can scan a player each round to detect any sign of infection, while the Doctor can discover the role of those who have been put into sleep. A Guardian Angel is able to protect a single crew member (but not themselves) from Gnosia attack, while an AC follower is a devoted person who would do anything to make the Gnosia win.

At the start of the game you can choose your name, select your gender (male, female, non-binary), pick an avatar and tweak your initial stats. From there, each loop will gradually introduce you to the gameplay mechanics and I can fairly say that everything up to the 20th loop can be considered part of the tutorial. After these introductory loops, you can finally setup your own game, choosing the number of crew members, the number of Gnosia infected and if you want to allow any other role in your game. You can also choose your own, of course, and it’s best advised to play them all to unlock different scenes.

Each meeting is made of five rounds where the crew members can suspect others while defending from accusations. You can also stay silent, which is a good strategy if you don’t want to raise any suspicion on yourself. At the end of the fifth round, a vote is held and the most suspected member is put into cold sleep. After the vote, you can visit one location of your choice, speaking to others, getting closer to them and adapting to their unique traits. During the night, someone will die and the next day you will have a new meeting, until either the Gnosia or humans win. From the main menu you can always check discussion logs, voting results, crew data, engineer and doctor reports, which will help you to better understand your crewmates’ behaviour.

The game follows a roguelite structure, with fragments of the story being unlocked progressively by knowing more about the characters and filling the “special items” section in the crew member tab. To unlock these special items you need to succed at certain events, which only appear when some conditions are met (like playing with different roles, having a high level of affection for another character etc.). It certainly takes many loops and a bit of luck to progress further with the plot, but once you get to know your crewmates you will be deeply absorbed by their stories. You can even team up with another crew member to collaborate and find the Gnosia. This is also one of the fastest way to trigger events that can improve your relationship with that character. It’s recommended to collaborate even when you know your teammate is lying, as this will still unlock special scenes you don’t want to miss.

There are some stats that you can increase by gaining experience after each loop: Charisma, Intuition, Logic, Charm, Performance and Stealth.  They all can be improved when leveling up, with new skills being unlocked after reaching a certain threshold. This way you can become more convincing with your actions and detect liars more easily. Each gameplay loop offers interesting situations and while it’s hard to survive at the beginning, due to the low level and lack of abilities, it will become much easier to debate and prove your point when you have increased your stats enough.

The AI does a good job at creating difficult situations, but it’s not immune to failures. One time the remaining crew started accusing me of being Gnosia and one character jumped to my defense, but soon after he voted against me and I ended up being frozen (too bad; I was indeed the Gnosia).

I must confess that the game is far more enjoyable when played in short sessions. Each loop can take from 5 to 15 minutes, depending on the events. The game was meant for mobile devices after all and it should be perfect for Steam Deck. This doesn’t mean that it’s not enjoyable on PC, but after playing for a few hours it obviously shows its repetitiveness due to dialogues that rarely change during the voting phase.

Graphically, the game includes detailed backgrounds and art. Characters look fancy and the camera zooming in and out helps give a decent sense of animation. Unfortunately, there are no voice overs and the recurrent soundtrack is nothing memorable.

I’m personally not a fan of visual novels, but Gnosia trapped me with its social deduction mechanics, making me way more interested about my crewmates than I first thought. Its addicting roguelite formula offers a good sense of progression and makes each playthrough different. While the setting is not new, the story becomes more gripping as you connect with the other characters and unlock new scenes after each loop.

Review written by Sonic Punk for Zeepond.com

Gnosia Steam Store Page