TheChungus

Everyone seems to be hopping on the bandwagon of torching this game, which is sad for the developers because I am sure it is deserving of better. The recursive mechanic is super cool. I came into the game blind, and dropping the box the first time was delighting. Yes, the game feels limited in that there are paths you are supposed to take to solve the puzzles. People love to compare it to Portal’s openness and trash it in that respect, which I would say is unfair. The puzzles are still intriguing, rewarding, and fun to solve. I would take the limited world trade off for what the game provides in terms of narrative and aesthetic design. I knew I was going to dig what the team at graceful decay were serving up when the soundtrack started rolling at the start. The game is beautiful, the soundtrack is the best pairing with a game’s narrative and overall feeling I have heard in a long time. The narrative itself is fantastic. Cheesy? At times. But a ton of authenticity throughout as well. I was certainly invested in the story, even to the point where I was sure Michael was the narrator. A clever trick allowing the player to identify the narrator by whoever they might connect to. The way the color palette and architecture changed across the chapters moving in synch with the ebb and flow of Kinzie/Michael’s relationship was also a wonderful trick. Terrific audio design, even when not considering the soundtrack. So all in all, this game is great. It’s not a Portal puzzler, and it’s not a Marriage Story level narrative, but it’s a blend of the two and an absolutely delightful one at that. Well done graceful decay, excited for your next release. Hopefully people come around, and this metacritic doesn’t stick at the score it’s currently at.