A blend of graphic novel, choose-your-own-adventure and point-and-click mystery game, 2120 is the latest book by illustrator George Wylesol. Forgoing a linear narrative in favour of reader-directed freedom, the novel is presented in the first-person perspective of a videogame—that old Windows 95 maze screensaver or wandering the corridors in Doom. Page turns are made in reaction to prompts, either in the classic “to turn left, go to page X” style, or in more obvious nods to video- or escape games such as passcodes to open doors. Some of these puzzles are nicely obtuse (there are Reddit threads of people stuck and asking for hints), further blurring the boundary between game and graphic novel.
You play as Wade, a computer repairman sent to a job in a vacant office building. Once inside, the door swings shut behind you, and you are forced to navigate empty corridors and deserted rooms in order to find a way out. This seemingly mundane beginning soon gives way to weirdness, as Wylesol wrings every drop of menace from the strange liminal hell-space of an abandoned office block. It’s a landscape of endless repeating corridors and identikit offices plucked from a nightmare, hostile to any form of humanity despite the pretence of water coolers, ergonomic furniture and the bright corporate colours that adorn every corridor.
Such uncanny environs are Wylesol’s forte, both in his graphic novels and work as an illustrator. There’s a weird blur of the physical and digital inherent in his signature style, where vector illustrations are laser printed and then scanned back into the computer. A collision of the real and unreal which ultimately questions any distinction between the two. Previous books have explored haunted hospitals (Ghosts, etc) and a battle with the legions of hell via a demonic computer virus (Internet Crusader), and it is clear from early on that 2120 is a horror story too. The innards of the building are impossibly large and initial attempts to make a quick escape become something of a philosophical quest into its depths. To say more on the plot would be to stray into spoiler territory, but fans of the eeriness of The House of Leaves, Silent Hill or David Lynch at his weirdest will revel in the opportunity to lose themselves within.
2120 is out now via Avery Hill Publishing. Get it from their online shop.
