Quarantine Circular

Buoyed by the warm reception that greeted last year’s sci-fi detective short Subsurface Circular, Mike Bithell has returned to the well within a brisk 10 months.

Buoyed by the warm reception that greeted last year’s sci-fi detective short Subsurface Circular, Mike Bithell has returned to the well within a brisk 10 months. Despite sharing half its title and all its interface with its predecessor, Bithell’s latest text-based narrative game has a markedly different focus. It’s still a talky, single-location drama – a kind of bottle episode in game form – but this time the stakes are much higher. As a global pandemic threatens humanity’s existence, a group of scientists aboard a seabound vessel are holding an alien visitor captive, trapped within the limited confines of the ship’s helipad. Could this interloper be responsible for the plague, or might they be able to offer a solution?