Do you like sticking your head in trash cans?  Shooting vases with revolvers?  Running from exploding windmills?  Well, maybe not, but there’s a first time for everything.

Only If is an indie game on Steam developed by Creability.  It’s currently free, which is somewhat surprising; the game is unlike anything I’ve ever played, with clever puzzles and stunning visuals and music.  Looking back, I definitely would have been willing to pay.

The game focuses on college-age  your character, protagonist Anthony Clyde.  After a wild party with some elicit substances, you wake up in a strange mansion.

The only other sign of life is Vinny, a mysterious voice coming over a radio who puts you through various fantastical trials.

Early in the game, you make a matrix-esque choice that determines which path of the game you experience.

In a room with a chess board, you can choose to take one of two pieces.

Take the white pawn, and you will save the life of your girlfriend Samantha, and your own life will be forfeit.

Take the black pawn, and you will save yourself and sacrifice Samantha.

As horrible as it sounds, I recommend the black pawn path at first, because it actually loops back around.  If you survive this path, it will return you to the familiar chess board room, and automatically start you on the white pawn path.

This may be why, early in the game, you see for a split second a plaque on the ceiling that says “Save the black pawn.”  If you choose this path, you will be able to get the full experience in one play-through.

While this game has a lot of good things going for it, it’s hardly perfect.

Some of the puzzles are unbelievably frustrating.  In one scene, you must button mash to stay conscious, while limping away from a burning windmill with shadows chasing you.

I must have played through that scene at least thirty times, trying to figure out what I was supposed to do.

Don’t be afraid to consult the online walkthrough at those moments, so the rage doesn’t ruin what is truly a great game.

Only If is free on Steam, and is good for a few hours of entertaining gameplay.  The voice acting and visuals are superb, and the puzzles are challenging and unique.  If that’s not enough to convince you, the ending is the most incredible thing I have seen in a long time.