A Highland Song

Even in this top year, A Highland Song stands alone. Rarely have we seen a game that understands so well how interactivity and freedom of choice enhance the gaming experience, without taking away that same freedom later. A Highland Song is a sublime exploration of coming of age, Scottish history and the myths that arise where man and nature meet.

A Highland Song is yet another confirmation for Inkle. A platform adventure capable of mixing the pleasure of trekking (beautifully rendered in 2D) with a delicate, enveloping and branching narrative like the paths that cross the highlands. An intimate story, the one that Moira constantly mulls over to herself, but also a cultural cross-section of a land rich in myths, legends, traditions and history, embellished with very human, slightly crazy characters, capable of becoming fun interlocutors with whom have a chat after a long climb, resting and sheltering from the cold of the mountains. Suggestive, audiovisually inspired, playfully fluid and very focused. Now I really want to visit Scotland.

Even with my relatively minor issues, A Highland Song is a powerful game filled with a distinct mystique. The overall goal requires playing through it a few times, but with each playthrough, you have more peaks and paths accessible right from the get-go. This is a game that is about optimizing your way through the mountains but also grapples with the reality that that level of optimization isn’t feasible. That ethereal otherworldliness lingers throughout every engrossing hour, beckoning you to find the most efficient path to the lighthouse while also tying up every loose end. This is a beautiful, gorgeous game that shouldn’t be missed.

A Highland Song is wonderful. The atmosphere that permeates the game is intoxicating and will make you want to search every inch of the environment. There is a real incentive to replay the game due to the many routes and the timed objective. Although the survival aspect feels a little unnecessary, there are plenty of elements within the design that will make you fall in love with Scotland.

Keeps the player entertained for as long as it is needed.

I can take the journey to the lighthouse with Moira as many times as I want and, given enough time I will uncover every story within A Highland Song. But there is a cost. No magic would be left in those hills nor the memory of my first journey. There will be no more songs to hear. And that leaves me with a very empty feeling.

And yet, as you struggle through the game's often abstruse systems, there is something rewarding in it all. More clarity both over where to go next and what the game itself is built upon would be welcome, but what is here is worthwhile and, for those with a greater tolerance for getting lost over and over or finding the right way and being unable to progress because the search has tired you out to much, A Highland Song holds some promise. After everything, the view is just about worth the climb.