What Surrounds Us will make you think a lot about circles
What Surrounds Us will make you think a lot about circles
《What Surrounds Us》会让你对“圆”产生深刻的思考
What Surrounds Us takes its title literally. You play as a circle surrounding a hole in its middle — it looks like a donut with frosting. You work together with other sentient moving circles, sometimes helping them joyfully meet with others. And you traverse a large map that’s composed entirely of, you guessed it, a series of circles. But the circles everywhere aren’t just an artistic choice; they underscore the game’s themes about working in connection with the environment and the things around us.
《What Surrounds Us》的标题名副其实。在游戏中，你扮演一个中间有孔的圆环——看起来就像一个涂了糖霜的甜甜圈。你需要与其他有知觉的移动圆环协作，有时还要帮助它们快乐地与同伴相遇。你所穿越的广阔地图完全由一系列圆环组成，没错，正如你所想的那样。但这些随处可见的圆环不仅仅是一种艺术选择；它们强调了游戏的主题，即如何与环境及周围的事物建立联系并共同运作。
Despite the trippy design, What Surrounds Us has a familiar format. I kept feeling echoes of The Legend of Zelda as I trekked across three distinct regions and solved lightweight puzzles to get from place to place. Over the course of the game you’ll get new powers, like the ability to traverse gaps by charging up a big leap. Later on, you’ll have to find ways to get around a glitchy substance that frequently snakes around the world and blocks your path.
尽管设计风格迷幻，但《What Surrounds Us》的玩法模式却让人感到亲切。当我穿梭于三个不同的区域并解决轻量级谜题以推进流程时，我不断感受到《塞尔达传说》的影子。在游戏过程中，你会获得新的能力，例如通过蓄力大跳来跨越鸿沟。在后期，你还必须想办法绕过一种经常在世界中蜿蜒穿行并阻挡你前进的故障物质。
The Zelda inspiration helped me settle into a game that offers little in the way of instructions. There’s basically no text and only a few onscreen prompts to explain controls. That means that most of my time was spent exploring the world, seeing where I ended up, and experimenting with the limited tools I had to see what happened. That often led to happy surprises, like learning that using a ping near a dark circle would open up new paths forward. Sometimes, it got me in trouble, like getting too close to an aggressive enemy circle that would eat me.
这种受《塞尔达传说》启发的设计，让我能够快速适应这款几乎没有新手引导的游戏。游戏中基本没有文字，只有极少数屏幕提示来解释操作。这意味着我大部分时间都在探索世界，观察自己会到达哪里，并利用有限的工具进行实验，看看会发生什么。这往往会带来惊喜，比如发现如果在深色圆环附近使用“ping”功能，就能开辟出新的前进道路。当然，有时也会惹上麻烦，比如靠得太近被具有攻击性的敌对圆环吃掉。
Without frequent video game crutches like overly obvious hints or chatty sidekicks, I mostly had to figure out the rules on my own. Like in many Zelda games, however, trying something just to see if it works — and finding that it would — was usually pretty satisfying. That experimentation also helped me better figure out how things in the game related to one another.
由于没有像过于明显的提示或话痨同伴这类常见的游戏“拐杖”，我大部分时间必须靠自己摸索规则。然而，就像许多《塞尔达传说》游戏一样，仅仅为了验证某种想法而去尝试，并最终发现它行得通，这种过程通常非常令人满足。这种实验过程也帮助我更好地理解了游戏中各事物之间的关联。
Like what you actually do in the game, its meaning is left for you to figure out as well. Because everything in the game is a series of circles, you have to interpret what they represent, like learning that dark red circles that block your path essentially function as walls. When I brought over a lonely circle pal to another group of friendly circles, it spun and chirped in a way that I can only describe as jumping for joy. Even the music “surrounds,” in its way; it’s ethereal and ambient, never overpowering your senses but also often humming quietly in the background as you wander around.
正如你在游戏中的具体行为一样，游戏的深层含义也留给你自己去解读。因为游戏中的一切都是由圆环组成的，你必须去诠释它们的含义，比如意识到那些阻挡你前进的深红色圆环本质上就是墙壁。当我把一个孤独的圆环伙伴带到另一群友好的圆环身边时，它旋转并发出鸣叫，我只能用“欢呼雀跃”来形容那一刻。甚至连音乐也在以自己的方式“环绕”着你；它空灵而富有氛围感，从不喧宾夺主，却总在你漫步时于背景中静静流淌。
What Surrounds Us manages to do a lot of interesting things, both thematically and with its gameplay, and it does it all in a tight, three-hour playthrough. Who knew a cute little donut had so much depth?
《What Surrounds Us》在主题和玩法上都做到了许多有趣的事情，而且这一切都在紧凑的三个小时流程中完成。谁能想到一个可爱的甜甜圈竟然有如此深邃的内涵呢？
What Surrounds Us is now available on PC via Steam.
《What Surrounds Us》现已通过 Steam 平台登陆 PC。