Where to get it

2021 · Freebird Games · Adventure · Indie

Impostor Factory

A bonkers time-loop tragicomedy murder mystery thriller featuring multiple casualties and a suspicious cat, from the creator of To the Moon.

Released: 30 September 2021
Platforms: Linux Windows macOS
Genres: Adventure Indie
Developers: Freebird Games
Publishers: Freebird Games
Modes: Single-player
Perspective: Bird view / Isometric
Themes: Science fiction Mystery
Country: Canada
Languages: Chinese (Simplified), English, French, German, Italian, Korean, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Russian, Spanish (Spain), Ukrainian
Time to beat: 3.5hmain story4hwith extras3.5hcompletionist

About

Impostor Factory is a 2021 adventure video game developed and published by Freebird Games. Like A Bird Story, the game was a follow-up and prequel of To the Moon and Finding Paradise. The story revolves around the new protagonist Quincy Reynard, who ends up in a murder case inside a mansion but suddenly finds himself experiencing double murders and mysterious time loops. The game released on September 30, 2021, for Linux, macOS, and Windows to positive reviews.

›Story

Dr. Watts and Dr. Rosalene have peculiar jobs: They give people another chance to live their lives, all the way from the very beginning.

But this isn't their story. Probably.

Instead, it's about Quincy. Let me tell you a story about him.

One day, Quincy was invited to a fancy parteh at a suspiciously secluded mansion. So he accepted and went; because even though the mansion was suspicious and secluded, it was also fancy and had a parteh.

In fact, it turned out to be so fancy that there was a time machine in its bathroom. Quincy could wash his hands and time-travel while he was at it. Talk about a time-saver!

But of course, then people start dying, because that's what they do. And somewhere along the way, things get a little Lovecraftian and tentacles are involved.

Anyway, that's around 1/3 of what the game is really about.

Players say

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Impostor Factory's gameplay is similar to that of the first game in the series, To the Moon, which was built on the RPG Maker XP engine. Like the previous game, it functions like a typical RPG, but lacks many RPG elements. However, unlike its predecessors, Impostor Factory does feature an inventory and party system, but these features are only used for jokes, and ultimately have no impact on the gameplay. Players navigate Quincy through story events as he tries to understand the events unraveling around him.

Story

On a rainy afternoon, Quincy Reynard arrives at what appears to be a decrepit mansion for a party. The massive estate is owned by Dr. Yu and Dr. Haynes, who run the illustrious Yu-Haynes Foundation in an underground lab hidden deep beneath the mansion.

Quincy gets acquainted with the other party guests, including Lynri, a mysterious young woman with the ability to seemingly be in two places at once. As Quincy navigates the party, he finds that the sink in the bathroom can apparently rewind time for him. Eventually, Quincy accidentally stumbles upon the corpses of a recently murdered Dr. Yu and Dr.

Development

Impostor Factory was first announced in March 2019, though it was not yet confirmed whether the game would be a part of the Sigmund Corp. series. The official trailer premiered in August 2020. It prominently features an unnamed lady in a red dress, presumably the same one featured in the promotional posters.

In November 2020, Kan Gao announced that the release date was pushed back from the end of 2020 to spring 2021. An update on the game's Steam page pushed the release back to September. The game released on September 30, 2021.

Reception

Impostor Factory has received generally positive reception, with a score of 80 out of 100 on review aggregator Metacritic, averaged from 13 critic reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

Damaso Scibetta of IGN Italia gave a positive review, saying: "Gao's writing is always impeccable and is capable of never falling into the banal, even when it touches themes already abused in the medium and in narration in general."