GabeN: The Final Decision

About

GabeN: The Final Decision is a single player casual role playing game. It was developed by Alex Zhang and was released on September 17, 2015. It received neutral reviews from players.

In "GabeN: The Final Decision," play as Gabe Newell investigating the sabotage of Valve's Triple Steam Summer Sale games: Half-Life 3, Portal 3, and Team Fortress 3. Uncover a shocking story, confront Robin Walker, and make a critical decision. This narrative-driven adventure explores the fate of long-awaited Valve titles.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

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59%

Audience ScoreBased on 321 reviews

story13 positive mentions

gameplay7 negative mentions

The game has a humorous premise and can be entertaining for fans of Gabe Newell and Valve.
It offers a short playtime, making it easy to complete in one sitting, which some players find appealing.
The soundtrack is noted to be enjoyable, adding a positive element to the overall experience.

The game suffers from poor design, with generic RPG Maker assets and a lack of originality in its graphics and gameplay.
Combat is unbalanced, with most enemies being too easy and only the final boss providing a real challenge.
The story is weak and often nonsensical, relying heavily on outdated memes and lacking coherent plot development.

story
61 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
21%
68%
11%
The game's story is a mixed bag, with many players finding it to be a disjointed and nonsensical parody filled with memes and references to Valve's franchises, particularly the long-awaited Half-Life 3. While some appreciate its humor and brevity, others criticize its lack of coherence and depth, noting that it often relies on tired jokes and fails to engage players meaningfully. Overall, the narrative is seen as entertaining for a short experience but ultimately shallow and poorly executed.
- “Moral of the story: you never know what life has in store for you, and if I had given up when all odds were against me, I wouldn't be where I am today.”
- “Amazing game, awesome storyline.”
- “I like the story; it has a little surprising factor at the end and brings back old memories of Half-Life 2 and Portal 1.”
- “This is a broken, poorly-executed Pokémon clone with a boring plot that makes no sense.”
- “The story has no proper intro and is too fragmented to hold interest.”
- “The entire plot revolves around the joke that Valve will never make a Half-Life 3, Portal 3, Left 4 Dead 3, etc., and the main problem with the game is that the entire story relies so heavily on such a lame joke that it gets kind of annoying.”
humor
54 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
93%
7%
The humor in the game is polarizing, with some players finding it amusing due to its meme references and quirky dialogues, while others criticize it as unoriginal and lacking depth. Many reviews note that the humor is entertaining initially but tends to wear thin quickly, often relying on dated jokes and generic RPGMaker assets. Overall, the comedic elements may appeal to fans of Valve culture, but they often fall flat for those seeking more substantial or innovative humor.
- “Funny little meme game about Gaben and Valve Co.”
- “I died laughing from the humorous dialogs throughout the game.”
- “It's a fun experience when you play it the first time, because it has some hilarious dialogues.”
- “The problem is that it's just not funny.”
- “Seriously, memes are not funny, just stop.”
- “If handled poorly though, it could come out as an unfunny circlejerk.”
music
31 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
45%
45%
10%
The music in the game has received generally positive feedback, with many players praising its variety and quality, often describing it as catchy and enjoyable. While some noted issues with looping and abrupt transitions, the overall composition and genre diversity—from light and quirky to epic—enhanced the gaming experience for many. Additionally, the soundtrack's accessibility outside the game was highlighted as a significant advantage.
- “The music varies between genres and moods, from light joyful quirky to heavy epic magnificence.”
- “The quality of music is comparable to and might have even surpassed that of MechWarrior 2 Titanium Trilogy tracks in terms of length and quality.”
- “The soundtrack and sound effects are amazing and so realistic that I first thought someone was shooting outside my apartment.”
- “However, the soundtrack can be catchy despite looping poorly at times.”
- “Granted the music is not without flaws; many generic tracks ended abruptly or not faded out hence they sound jarring and out of sync when looped.”
- “The music loops are noticeable, the assets look like they took 2 minutes in paint so the background could get chroma keyed (reminds me of old projects as a kid), and well, it's not a well designed game.”
gameplay
30 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
17%
60%
23%
The gameplay is primarily centered around exploring RPG Maker maps, collecting items, and engaging in battles, often featuring humorous references to Valve properties. While some players appreciate the comedic elements and straightforward mechanics, many criticize the gameplay for being repetitive, simplistic, and lacking depth, with some describing it as tedious and unbalanced. Overall, opinions are mixed, with a divide between those who enjoy the humor and casual nature of the game and those who find it lacking in substance and engagement.
- “The gameplay is simple, use arrow keys to move, enter is your action button and combat functions like a Pokémon game in a simplistic turn-based fashion.”
- “Gameplay is addictive and the graphics are cute.”
- “The gameplay is very straightforward, and so are the areas and 'dungeons'. The bosses are fun simply because they are horrible cutouts of Valve characters, but I see the humor in how bad it is.”
- “Writing is lazy, fighting is your typical RPG Maker style, gameplay is plainly boring.”
- “There is no pace, consistency, balance, nor progression in the entire gameplay, as also seen by a majority of items and skills which make no sense statistically, leaving you clueless what to do or use half of the time.”
graphics
14 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
21%
58%
21%
The graphics in the game receive mixed reviews, with some players appreciating the cute pixelated style while others criticize the reliance on standard RPG Maker assets and poorly executed artwork, including instances of graphic bugs and stolen images. While a few users praise the visuals as "amazing," the overall consensus leans towards disappointment due to the lack of originality and quality.
- “Gameplay is addictive and the graphics are cute.”
- “Last but certainly not the least, the graphics are amazing.”
- “It's playable and has nice pixelated graphics.”
- “The game is also filled with graphic bugs, like assets placed in wrong positions and levels having weird and stupid structures.”
- “The graphics are either completely stock RPG Maker assets or bad paint jobs.”
- “The artwork is pretty much just Google images put into the game, so you can imagine it's all pretty bad yet mildly humorous.”
grinding
9 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
11%
89%
The grinding aspect of the game is widely criticized for being tedious and poorly designed, with unbalanced boss fights and repetitive combat that lacks clarity due to the absence of enemy health bars. While some players find minimal grinding tolerable for achievement hunting, the overall experience is marred by incoherent gameplay and frustrating filler content.
- “No grinding needed (or maybe just a little).”
- “Enemies don't have health bars, so you end up not knowing if abilities are even damaging the enemies, which makes the boss fights even more tedious because they last a stupid amount of time.”
- “Labyrinth battles are tedious and repetitious.”
- “The gameplay is tedious, incoherent, and unbalanced.”
stability
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Overall, users report mixed experiences with stability, noting the presence of bugs and glitches, particularly with key items that can disappear unexpectedly. While some players encountered no issues, others expressed frustration with the game's stability, indicating that it could benefit from improvements.
- “I've only encountered one buggy item thus far; it was a key item that you needed to use to defeat GLaDOS. When I went to examine it, it suddenly disappeared, as if I had consumed it. This was also the reason I tried going back, but then I realized the 'save' wasn't actually the 'save' button.”
- “I wish this game was a lot less buggy, but sadly, it isn't.”
- “Buggy items.”
character development
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
Reviews indicate a significant criticism of character development, particularly regarding the villain, who is perceived as lacking depth and relying on clichéd tropes like the "illuminati." This suggests that the game's narrative suffers from superficial character arcs, detracting from overall engagement and storytelling quality.
- “Oh and don't even get me started on the villain; the developer had to resort to the 'Illuminati' as an easy way of making a villain without any actual character development. Since when did character development ever make a story interesting in the first place?!”
emotional
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players report a strong emotional impact, with moments that evoke deep feelings, such as tears in response to significant stakes within the game's narrative.
- “Tears welled up in his eyes when he realized what exactly was at stake.”
monetization
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The monetization strategy is perceived as a cynical cash grab, negatively impacting the indie game scene and damaging the reputation of RPG Maker.
- “But instead, this seems like a cynical cash grab, which is bad for the indie space and further hurts the already tarnished reputation of RPG Maker in general.”