At first glance, The Old City: Leviathan looks to be an amazing game. A mystery waiting to be solved. Depth and scale. Boundless intrigue. Instead it shows itself to be another shallow walking simulator.
The world itself, locked and running on high graphics in Unreal Engine 3, looks to be highly immersive and imaginative, this unique "game" is hindered by the fact that there is zero gameplay. Left mouse for zoom, E to opens doors, WASD to move, and left shift to walk a slightly faster pace. There is virtually zero learning curve, no challenge, no puzzle to solve, no guessing. There is a good sense of paranoia but it subsides by the third chapter.
When reading the typed letters that are stuck to the walls throughout the game you get a sense of an almost sci-fi story: a falling away happened where humanity simply gave up, years later three factions came to power and started fighting over what to do next and what to do with their own freedoms, there is something in the water, a few names, and that's it. While you gather what little information there is you may find yourself uncaring as to what happened.
While the narrator drones on and on about dreams and reality and suicide, you come across some VERY disturbing images of people having hung themselves, bled out, starved, etc. Some of these being children. I should mention that this game does not come with a trigger warning, just a message saying that all you see is not real. I consider myself a stable-minded individual but it shook me to where I had to turn the camera and sidestep past them.
If you explore every nook and cranny and the suddenly unveiling pathways, you'll rack up a total of 3 hours play time. At least Dear Esther was and still is cheap to buy. In that game you gather quickly what's happened to the character you're controlling and somehow feel connected. Its meant to bring you sadness. The visual is a vehicle to the deeper points. Leviathan attempts a story but is interrupted by itself, its trying to show you something while telling you something else unrelated.
Maybe I'm not smart enough to pay attention to the point the game was trying to make, maybe the art of the game just serves a deeper and mindful purpose, maybe I'm too impatient and need something to happen while I play a game, or maybe having players walk around for 3 hours with nothing to do but read and listen makes for a lousy "game."