Centum is that game people play to show how cultured and intelligent they are, but that in the end nobody actually likes.

“Centum is that game people play to show how cultured and intelligent they are when talking about it, but that in the end nobody actually likes.”

This sentence stuck with me from the moment I read it while looking into Centum, and now that I’ve finished it, I have to say it’s an almost perfect summary of this title.

Centum is fascinating but weird. Very weird. Too weird. And just as cryptic.

The game describes itself as “an escape room with an unreliable narrator. An escape room you might not even want to escape from, and where every question hides a why.”

Did you understand anything? No? Good. You’re off to a great start.

The whole game is one massive WTF that blends philosophical concepts, meta-narration and, very likely, a healthy dose of complete nonsense.

Maybe I’m too stupid to fully understand it, maybe I wasn’t paying enough attention, but once I completed it I was only slightly less confused than when I started.

The game is a point-and-click that radically changes its structure from chapter to chapter.

In the first one, you actually have to escape from a room. Days pass, things happen, and you’re systematically trapped in a loop with no clear way out. And there never will be, because while there are different ways to escape, they’re all very, very random, with certain actions needing to be performed in specific ways or at specific moments. Miss them, and you end up stuck in yet another loop without even realizing it.

The second part becomes more linear, with puzzles and minigames you need to solve to move forward.

The third part is completely text-based and structured like a visual novel.

The fourth and final part is a sort of mix of the previous ones.

Did I ever actually have fun while playing it? Honestly… no.

And yet, there’s something there. Something that still hooked me and pushed me to the end. The secrets, the hope of understanding what’s going on, the undeniable charm it manages to convey.

I honestly don’t feel like recommending it to anyone.

But at the same time… I do.

It depends on how ready you are to dive into a real mess.