Gravity Bone (PC, 2008)

WARNING!  THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS PLOT SPOILERS FOR GRAVITY BONE!

Who is Citizen Abel?  All we really know is that he is a spy.  On his latest adventure, he is tasked with planting a bug on man at a bourgeois get-together.  The eyes of security guards scrutinize him as he passes.  He sneaks into the staff's quarters, disguises himself as a waiter, and puts the bug (literally an insect, whose foul aroma allows it to be tracked "across the galaxy") into a drink, which he gives to the target.   A job well done, Abel, now get to the exit and await your pay.
So begins Gravity Bone (2008), the sixth game in the Citizen Abel series.  The game was designed and directed by Brendon Chung, who began the series in 1999 as a modification of the Quake II engine.  Gravity Bone is the first game to not be a modification, but its own separate entity, allowing it to assume a bold and original visual and gameplay style.  These games contain little-to-no dialogue, feature non-linear gameplay (each game is not even in chronological order), and cubey character models.  I won't say cubist, because that is not the same thing.  The low definition is made up for by the wonderful color and striking light choices.  The story alone makes up for it.
Abel continues on to another mission.  Whether or not these two missions happen consecutively is irrelevant. Odds are, they are not.  This time, he has to photograph five mechanical birds (who comically explode every time you do so).  What exactly is the purpose of the birds?  Why would that be important information for Abel?  He has only been hired to do his part of the job, and that's all he should worry about.
The mission takes place across a few buildings in a busy city.  A rainstorm rages outside.  There is a girl in the hall smoking a cigarette.  The player does not know her (at this point, they couldn't) but you find out later that the two of you are friends/partners.  I would infer that her purpose in the mission is to keep an eye out for you.  The birds are hidden in rooms locked with padlocks, but you have a can of liquid nitrogen and a hammer to break them.  After you get the last snapshot, you return to the exit, and are suddenly shot in the back.  Your assailant is the girl who was supposed to be your friend.  She takes the camera and jumps out of the nearest window.
Climbing to his feet, Abel runs after the traitor.  She climbs down into ducts below train tracks, and he follows.  One of these ducts drops you down onto the dining room table where the rich are having a meal.  The two trample all over the nice china and glasses.  She runs out onto a balcony, and when Abel turns the corner, she catches him unawares, and shoots him, causing him to fall backward down to the streets below.  As he falls, Abel experiences flashes of memory that show his relation to her.
The wonderful thing about Gravity Bone is that while it is short (beatable in less than fifteen minutes) it never seems to abrupt.  There is an attention to detail that you don't see in many mainstream games, which would only be improved and enhanced in the next Citizen Abel game, Thirty Flights of Loving (2012).  Perhaps the first five episodes will be remade in this style.  When I sent a message to Brendon Chung, he said that he had "played with that idea".  I'm eager to know what else will happen to Citizen Abel, who he will meet, and who he is.  I get the feeling that I won't be let down.