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LIFE IS STRANGE: DOUBLE EXPOSURE [First Playthrough] (2024)

February 21, 2025

AUTHOR’S NOTE

This is the first of several LIFE IS STRANGE: DOUBLE EXPOSURE pieces and is an impressions piece on my first play-through and not meant as an in-depth, critical look at the game. This post and play-through reflects my decision from the first LIFE IS STRANGE that Chloe and Max left Arcadia Bay together. A later post will report back regarding a different direction.

Also: it is worth noting that DOUBLE EXPOSURE is a Deck Nine game, a company that is no stranger to the LIFE IS STRANGE series. However, Deck Nine has previously employed sexual aggressors and racists and may still. That they’ve succeeded in creating nuanced, diverse and accepting games despite the efforts of some of their staff is a testament to those who believe in the spirit of the first LIFE IS STRANGE.

I’ve played and replayed every LIFE IS STRANGE game, read all of the comics as well as the WAVELENGTHS follow-up novel STEPH’S STORY. And I wrote about all of them, some more than a few times because it’s a series that means that much to me.

So you’d think I’d have more interest in the latest LIFE IS STRANGE installment, a direct follow-up to the game that kicked it all off, that I’d be elated to revisit a world with Chloe and Max, albeit post-Arcadia Bay.

Yes, you’d certainly think that. At first, I was.

Then I heard that Chloe wouldn’t be in it. That it was about the further adventures of one Max Caulfield.

Here’s the thing: I don’t really care about Max Caulfield.

My favorite playable LIFE IS STRANGE characters are:

  1. Chloe Price (BEFORE THE STORM)
  2. Steph Gingrich (WAVELENGTHS)
  3. Alex Chen (TRUE COLORS)
  4. Max Caulfield (LIFE IS STRANGE)
  5. Chris Eriksen (THE AWESOME ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN SPIRIT)
  6. Sean Diaz (LIFE IS STRANGE 2)

(Sorry Sean!)

Max Caulfield is a bookworm, a shutterbug, a wallflower, and — as of the first LIFE IS STRANGE — she hasn’t had much in the way of life experiences. Her only other character traits are sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong and handing out unhelpful idealistic advice.

She’s someone fun to talk to in a used book store, but you wouldn’t walk out of that shop thinking that you’d met a complex, textured person.

DOUBLE EXPOSURE promised a new Max Caulfield for a new LIFE IS STRANGE adventure and, it does deliver on that. This Max no longer the doe-like youth standing in the shadow of Chloe. Despite her time rewind powers having atrophied, she’s more confident and self-assured and worldly. In my play-through, she and Chloe cut ties halfway through their cross-country roadtrip in Chicago and, following that schism, Max floated around as an acclaimed photojournalist before. Now she’s in her 20s and is an artist-in-residence at Caledon University, a small liberal arts school in Lakeport, Vermont.1

Unfortunately, despite being a respected artist, despite having lived and experienced so much — in Arcadia Bay and on the road — Max Caulfield is still pretty fucking boring.

We meet up with Max as she’s finally settling in at Caledon; she’s been there long enough to establish new friendships and know students names, but is still considered the new kid at school. Her two closest academic friends are poet and daughter of the dean Safi and astrophysicist Moses.

One night Safi and Moses and Max are having a few celebratory drinks to champion recent accomplishments. Safi gets upset by a call and takes off. Later that night, Max finds her shot dead. Max being the meddlesome kid adult she is, attempts to rewind time to prevent the murder and, instead, happens to open a portal to an alternate timeline where Safi is still alive, leading her to use both timelines to find the killer.

As LIFE IS STRANGE setups go, this one is bog standard, and shares a lot in common with Deck Nine’s LIFE IS STRANGE: TRUE COLORS: small, lush New England town, tightly-knit liberal community, death of a well-known citizen, and a protagonist with superpowers that aid in rooting out the murder mystery.

A protagonist who is an acclaimed artist with superpowers and is still pretty fucking boring.

Yes, Max has grown up. Her voice is no longer whisper thin, and she speaks in declarative statements instead of wishy-washy musings. She’s also queer now! (While I didn’t play her that way in the first LIFE IS STRANGE, yeah, a lot can change over the years!) She’s still frustratingly dull. Her taste in art and music non-offensive. She rarely has a bad thought towards anyone, even if they’re trying to -kill her-. She barely has any connections to anyone unless they’re right in front of her.

Max Caulfield in her 20s is still someone who, if you met in a bookstore or art gallery, you’d forget about the moment you walked away. Apart from her new split timeline power, very little has changed about her. That’s a problem, especially when you’re dealing with a series that has characters like the bitter and disillusioned Chloe, or Steph dealing with her queer crossroads, or Alex Chen’s dissonance juggling the good and bad in people as she’s thrust into independence after a life in foster homes.

One could make the argument that Max’s detachment and lack of decisiveness are due to enduring the weight of the events at Arcadia Bay but to that I say: “Nope, she’s always been that way.”

DOUBLE EXPOSURE could have course-corrected that, as it feels like a re-evaluation and response to the first game. Matters here are not as morally cut-and-dry, and there’s more nuance towards character motivations here in the first half of the game. It’s not all youthful indiscretions low-stakes teen criminal behavior. It’s an adult(-ish) world of academia, and motives here are far more complex.

At least, they are until you hit the second half of the game.

LIFE IS STRANGE has always struggled with its reliance on its super-powered younger protagonists, enough so that half of the games feature protagonists without powers. Unfortunately, DOUBLE EXPOSURE veers off into X-MEN-esque superhero antics. It pivots from allowing the super-human powers to enrich and deepen the narrative and characters. Instead of watching the emotional turmoil unfold by Max rewriting Chloe’s timeline in the first LIFE IS STRANGE, DOUBLE EXPOSURE turns one character into a Magneto-esque villain and force Max to either follow along or to maximize her powers to prevent something only she can prevent.

Between the superpowers and the academic politics, DOUBLE EXPOSURE is all about wielding power and influence and control. While that’s all well-and-good for say, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, that’s not what draws folks to the LIFE IS STRANGE games; we want out small-scale stories writ large. We want our nuanced characters and pathos and normal struggles framed against the chaos of the rest of the world. That’s entirely what the first LIFE IS STRANGE was built around: it was about Max and Chloe, their friendship and their estrangement, a world that would tear itself apart because Chloe’s continued existence was deemed that damaging, and one person who could rewind to save Chloe from her ordained fate.

DOUBLE EXPOSURE lacks that emotional core; it substitutes fleshing out Max’s personality with broader powers, more guilt, and more responsibility. If there’s any character here that shines, it’s because Max’s best friend Safi has secrets, Safi can be dangerous, Safi has objectives and goals and wants and needs.

In other words? She has a lot of what Max lacks, and what a follow-up to the first LIFE IS STRANGE needed.

DOUBLE EXPOSURE ends with the laughable declaration that “MAX CAULFIELD WILL RETURN” that, at first blush, reads almost as a threat. The majority of fans that wanted Max to return, wanted her to return with Chloe. I would have been happy if we had a more interesting Max, but on the other hand? They could have just made this game around an entirely new character, like they’ve done in the past.

However, this is meant as more an impressions piece, an examination of why — fundamentally — DOUBLE EXPOSURE was unsatisfying for me as a lifelong LIFE IS STRANGE fan. I didn’t get to touch on what Chloe is up to and how Max is dealing with it; Max’s adoption of digital versus analog; the soundtrack; the inverted scope of the game when compared to the prior major LIFE IS STRANGE entries; what exactly is canon in the LiS universe now, or even how Max Caulfield reminds me of GILMORE GIRLS’s Rory Gilmore.

And I do want to impress that, if you can let go of the franchise’s history, of all of that baggage, I would have enjoyed this game. Granted, I still would have laughed when I saw the closing placard, but I would recommend it to others. And I will be replaying it, and my opinion of it — and adult Max — may change! After all… “MEDIACLATURE’S LIFE IS STRANGE POSTS WILL RETURN”

  1. I’ve previously penned that the LIFE IS STRANGE series often reminds me of my life growing up in Vermont, and it’s not just because both rural areas of the northeast and northwest United States have similar topography and foliage. Quite a bit of LIFE IS STRANGE is influenced by Shirley Jackson, who is best known for penning THE HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL as well as other darkly weird tales. Jackson spent the bulk of her life in Bennington, Vermont right by the esteemed Bennington College and its unconventional and progressive teaching styles. Jackson’s novel WE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN THE CASTLE features the Blackwell family, whereas LIFE IS STRANGE’s school is named Blackwell Academy, after the rich Arcadian Bay Blackwell real estate developers. And now, here we are, in Vermont, in a school that could easily double for Bennington College. ↩︎

STRAY GODS (2023)

May 13, 2024

Just to note…

I’ve only played STRAY GODS once, so I cannot discern between any differences between lyrics and/or outcomes apart from the linked videos that I did not capture.

The STRAY GODS story I experienced is solely the one I played, so it may not feature the same songs, inflections, intonations, or lyrics that you may have or might experience.

Due to timing and circumstance, I wasn’t able to play STRAY GODS the moment it was released, which is a shame because anything that has the words ‘The Roleplaying Musical’ in its title is catnip to me, and to have to punt on it was trying.

That said, it was worth the wait.

I do want to get one thing out of the way beforehand though: by ‘roleplaying’ they literally mean ‘roleplaying’. This is not an RPG. This is an interactive novel. You are ‘roleplaying’ as the title character, a wayward young adult. The only interactions are dialogue trees via a very BioWare-ish interface.

(I will note: this game was willed into existence by the lead writer of DRAGON AGE so … none of the above should be terribly shocking news.)

Personally? I am absolutely fine with that severe amount of restraint, especially since I played it while suffering from a broken tailbone because games and narratives distract from obtrusive pain and angling dialogue trees was about the best I could do at the time. (Don’t ask, and no it wasn’t because of any Chicago snow or ice.)

Alas, I’m getting ahead of myself.

STRAY GODS takes Greek gods and situates them in a quasi-modern Earth. While the bodies said gods inhabit are ephemeral, they find new hosts and live on, partially thanks to the belief of those around them, as well as the dark shadow cast by their prior history.

If you’re a comic book and/or gaming nerd, it evokes a lot of Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie’s THE WICKED + THE DIVINE which essentially posits mythological gods as rock stars in the modern world who inhabit mortals for their own purposes and, yes, spectacle and hedonism.

It also reminds me somewhat of Don’t Nod’s HARMONY: THE FALL OF REVERIE with its emphasis on mythological stories and tone and high stakes.

To riff on a slightly more popular work, STRAY GODS swaps the fairy tales of DC/Telltale’s FABLES’ inspired THE WOLF AMONG US in both the thick inkworks and comic book visual stylization which — oddly reminds me of AEON FLUX — as well as noir-infused conflict. However, there are no quick-time events; just dialogue. Reams of dialogue with striking shot-reverse-shots of static images.

If you’re here to play because you’re hoping to quell some sort of power fixation, you will be sadly disappointed, because here? Here, you are the mortal, and — not unlike one of many TWILIGHT ZONE episodes — it’s your life at stake, and only you can wriggle out of the noose.

All of the above may sound like I’m damning STRAY GODS with faint praise, but I am not. STRAY GODS is a gaming anomaly. It’s rare that games like these, games that are all about heightened emotions and all emotive and intensely personal conflicts, those finding their way in the world. I am endlessly thankful that it exists and? I am looking forward to replaying it and possibly taking a different tact to it and to see where that takes me.

The voice casting here is pitch-perfect. The majority of the cast are well-known for TV/video game voice work — Laura Bailey as Grace who has been foisted upon her the role of Calliope, Troy Baker as Apollo, Mary Elizabeth McGlynn as Persephone, Abubakar Salim as Eros — Salim voiced Bayek in my favorite Assassin’s Creed game — but also features FOR ALL MANKIND’s multi-faceted Janina Gavankar as Grace’s best friend Frankie! Felicia Day! STAR TREK: DISCOVERY’s Anthony Rapp as Orpheus! (Apologies if I left out anyone’s favorites — there’s a wealth of talent here.)

This is a work all about bombast and elation and care and worry and wrung hands and fear for the future and … well, perfectly attuned to all of the necessities that form the best musicals. (I will note? They undersell that while this is a musical? It’s first-and-foremost a rock opera.)

You can write off the static nature of the visuals which are essentially merged versions of sequential visual storytelling as economical, but they’re also emblematic of emotional moments that are frozen in time. Moments where you feel your life has changed; pivot points.

Granted, not everyone can appreciate that — obviously, those who are more inclined towards theatrics and are more emotionally grandiose will glean more from this than others — so take this recommendation with a pinch of salt.

As is the way with gods and fates, this has all happened before and it’ll all happen again. The end is pre-ordained, and everyone knows it, but you have to jump through the hoops to get there.

Are the songs in the vein of modern Broadway staples? Yes, yes, they are, but there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s a ever-growing formula for a reason, folks.

‘Challenging a Queen’:

However, these sort of tales? Even if my engagement is simply pointing my directional stick at a quip or murmur or outburst and then hear the astounding belting of a grand duet? The journey is worth the effort.

If there was any doubt that this was a saccharine sweet musical, they put a pin in it at the end — at least with my tale — when Grace reunites with Calliope.

…and yes, I did try to romance Persephone but it didn’t quite work out. (For what it’s worth? I wrangled the second scene. So close, but yet so far.)

Addendum

Just one day before this post was scheduled to be published, it was announced that Summertime Studios will be releasing STRAY DOGS: ORPHEUS as DLC on June 27th! (Although, boo, as a console player I have to wait for some undefined time to play it.) Can’t wait to delve back into this world!

HITCHHIKER (2021)

May 3, 2024

Another Annapurna work! Similarly to OPEN ROADS, it takes place almost exclusively in cars which — yes, fitting for a game named HITCHHIKER.

However! This game? It’s a slow burn that becomes surreal as fuck. It’s one of the few games that feels justifiably and smartly inspired by TWIN PEAKS in that there’s a hell of a lot of symbolism, a shitton of folks talking in code, and a protagonist who has no idea what the fuck is going on and is literally just along for the ride. Most interactive TWIN PEAKS knockoffs? Not great! I’m looking at you, DEADLY PREMONITION. Not the case with HITCHHIKER.

HITCHHIKER is broken up into five chapters, five different drivers, and the bulk of the game simply consists of listening to them and looking around at items in the car and trying to piece together the life you can’t remember, as well as your meaning to exist.

I realize that sounds pretentious, but it’s engrossing enough that I had no problem running with it. Or riding shotgun, so to speak.

That’s it. That’s the game. Like OPEN ROADS, it’s primarily an interactive novel, but it’s so engrossing and weird and enthralling and I am absolutely here for it.

The voice acting is absolutely on-point. Visually, it’s fittingly stylized and off-kilter and far more colorful than you might think for the subject material. If I have one complaint it’s the extremely abrupt ending which? I’ll note? Not something I usually complain about.

It also features an abundance of crows, which I can never get enough of.

If you are into interactive narratives/novels, I can’t recommend it enough. If you aren’t? Steer clear. (No pun intended.)

OPEN ROADS (2024)

April 29, 2024

Annapurna has been one of the boosters of interactive novels over the past few years, publishing games such as SOUTH OF THE CIRCLE, TELLING LIES and WHAT REMAINS OF EDITH FINCH, just to list a few. The recently released OPEN ROADS is yet another quality narrative exploration addition to their library, one that focuses on the dynamics of mothers and daughters via a road trip to discover answers to family history questions.

OPEN ROADS has been in development for far longer than anyone expected. It was first revealed in 2020 at The Game Awards as as a project from GONE HOME development studio Fullbright, founded by Steve Gaynor who oversaw MINERVA’S DEN, DLC for the art deco intellectualism of BIOSHOCK.

If you keep up with gaming news, you may be aware that Fullbright as a development studio has essentially folded after practically everyone quit during the production of OPEN ROADS due to Gaynor’s toxic behavior.

Gaynor stepped down as CEO, but still, eventually everyone left except himself, and Annapurna allowed those that formed Open Roads Team to separately work on OPEN ROADS.

Sadly, this is a recurring theme within the gaming industry. Just a handful of days before penning this post, it was revealed that the narrative head and, later, CCO of Deck Nine — who developed of some of my favorite LIFE IS STRANGE games, games that mean so much to queer individuals — much like Fullbright’s GONE HOME — the creative environment was absolutely toxic.

My apologies for the severe digression. It’s awful that the working environment behind so many emotionally sensitive games that resonate for marginalized folks are still helmed by toxic assholes who take advantage of their position of power, but I feel the context is necessary.

Anyway! OPEN ROAD is a raw and unvarnished exploration of lives lived, but buried and hidden. It is definitely more of an interactive novel than a proper game — there are no fail conditions, there’s no risk; it’s a small interactive tale of a mother and daughter exploring their past and roots, mostly via car trips and the occasional abandoned abode. It’s simple, yes, but extremely effective if you’re into these sort of interpersonal stories that explore the nature of human behavior and emotions and coping and willful ignorance.

If there’s one facet I’d complain about, it’s that the character designs for the mother — Opal — and the daughter — Tess — is severely at odds with the 3D realism of the background surroundings. It’s especially jarring when they’re driving in the car as the environments are startling realistic, whereas the characters are very expressionistic. I will note that the design for the characters is very winsome and expressive, but the the game does have an undeniable visual dissonance.

I’m sure that approach was done by intent, and perhaps meant to be unnerving and evoke how fantastical this trip is — how it’s dreamlike — but from an aesthetic perspective? It did unmoor me.

It’s a wonder that this game was released to the world, despite everything. It’s so heartfelt and feels so personal and I can’t help but love and revel in it. It’s perfect for a Sunday afternoon play, especially if you aren’t afraid to shed a few tears.

THIRSTY SUITORS (2023)

April 22, 2024

“BATTLE YOUR EXES

DISAPPOINT YOUR PARENTS

FIND YOURSELF”

Such is the mantra of THIRSTY SUITORS.

It is so, so, so very tempting to describe THIRSTY SUITORS as the queer SCOTT PILGRIM everyone should have had, even though the former is a videogame and I’m referring to the SCOTT PILGRIM graphic novels. However? No, no, no, it is a very different beast.

THIRSTY SUITORS features Jaja. Jaja is a first-generation American-India transplant. She also goes through romances like toilet paper, leaving emotional turmoil in her wake.

After receiving her comeuppance via a garbage girlfriend miles away, she cycles back home to face the sexy daemons of her past.

To briefly note: I’m a white male (he/they) New Englander so I haven’t dealt with the very specific sort of parental passive-aggressive and negging portrayed here by a first-generation American-Indian woman, but I am married to a Greek woman so I’ve definitely witnessed something similar first-hand.

I will fully admit that I bought THIRSTY SUITORS because it looked like a spiritual sequel to one of my favorite games: JET SET/GRIND RADIO, all rollerblades and culture-jamming. Hell, when I was running club nights, we’d routinely use those JET SET RADIO gaming avatars to promote ourselves. SEGA was way ahead of the curve with that game. (That’s a story for another time.)

While THIRSTY SUITORS delivered on the JGR facet in that it was fun as hell — you can effortlessly skate around your neighborhood and the surrounding areas without facing much in the way of penalties — and it features the same exuberance and a similarly boppy soundtrack.

However, while it does incorporate the JGR mechanics to get around, THIRSTY SUITORS is first-and-foremost about one fuckup of a human being who has made so many bad decisions as a teen — someone who was innately alluring to others — someone who used people close to them like toilet paper, and is reckoning with that and trying to put matters, if not right, then not wrong.

Despite the name, despite what it says on its tin, while everyone here is horny as fuck, it’s about facing the night after as opposed to focusing on hookups.

This game is a fucking exhaustive emotional rollercoaster.

Like the best works, it’s framed as a daily structure. (Hey, don’t believe me? Watch DEADWOOD, which is strictly bound by sunrise and sunset.)

While the game mechanics are thrilling, really, the game is more about the narrative, and what a story. THIRSTY SUITORS is a breath of fresh air, detailing an immigrant story and 20-something angst. While playing it, I was totally gobsmacked that it existed because? Tales like these simply don’t exist in the interactive space, much less look as gorgeous and be so aurally hooky as this.

One of the things I absolutely love, love, love about this game is how physical Jala is. Jala isn’t the sort of person to just walk into a scene; they bounce into the action. Jala loves to flip around, and while part of it is a call to attention, it’s also just innately them. That sort of physical effusiveness is, oddly, no more on display than when Jala is cooking.

The first step to cooking is always: wash your fucking hands. This is the first game I’ve ever seen to prioritize it. (Also? If that’s not your first step in cooking? Uh, fucking learn it! Repeatedly wash your hands, you filthmongers!)

But I digress. Jala? Jala flips herself over and performs a number of acrobatics — and you have to perform a few quicktime events — to do so.

It’s a small note, but upon washing her hands? She flips on back to the stovetop! Everything is sliced and diced and served with over-exercised verve and I fucking love it!

As someone similar, as someone who can’t help but bop around in the kitchen, who can’t stand still, who is a weird ball of energy that always wants to be in motion, I couldn’t help but love her grace.

THIRSTY SUITORS is a game I wish continued forever. I loved every moment of it. (That said, I did skip every optional skating opportunity because I’m not in the mood for twitch-based gaming at the moment!) Did it have a satisfying conclusion? Most certainly. I still want more. I want a 7-UP of this game. 14-UP. 21-UP! (If you aren’t familiar with the reference? There’s an array of documentaries that follow folks every seven years of their lives. Highly recommended!)

I will note that, yes, I was disappointed that I couldn’t really romance anyone, but that’s not the point of the game or its narrative. Despite the flirting options, there’s really no wooing; it’s all about self-examination and self-scrutiny.

There aren’t many games that I feel the need to replay, but this game has been calling to me to revisit. It’s that good, and I feel like so much effort and thought and feeling went into it, but also seems like it was overlooked and under-appreciated. Please rectify that.

SOUTH OF THE CIRCLE (2020)

July 12, 2023

(iOS/PC/PS4/PS5/Switch/Xbox) I previously castigated games that want to be films and, by the standards I set in that write-up, SOUTH OF THE CIRCLE hits every note. Sure, you can navigate your character around, explore a bit from here and there, choose an emotional response to someone’s remark, but it’s first-and-foremost a linear experience to tell a single story, to imbue a specific sort of emotional hurt.

However, I did note that — if done correctly — those grievances could be forgiven, and SOUTH OF THE CIRCLE is one of those works.

SOUTH OF THE CIRCLE opens with a pilot (Floyd) and a British climatologist (Peter) in the cockpit of a plane that’s crashed in the middle of nowhere Antartica. Floyd is immobile, as one of his legs were crushed in the crash. Peter sets out to find help at one of the few neighboring research stations, following a pulsing beacon that pierces through the snow. As he goes from station to station, he intermittently recalls the events that brought him here: his initial struggles with his research, in finding a like-minded fellow scientist who helps inspire him with his work that is meant to help Britain which is in the midst of the Cold War, in falling in love with said fellow scientist, then faced with the dilemma that the school overseeing his research doesn’t want to give the fellow scientists co-credit for the research because she’s a woman.

Notably, said partner is not onboard the crashed plane.

While SOUTH OF THE CIRCLE dabbles with thriller and espionage elements — Peter’s higher-ups are constantly fretting about the Soviet menace — it’s first and foremost about two people bonding over their scientific curiosity, how they inspire each other, how they trust each other, and how institutions can cause someone to betray a loved one.

It’s an extremely potent and effective tale, bolstered by the sparse but simplistically dazzling presentation. While the game consists of flat colors and simple shapes, it all comes together in a brilliantly evocative way. It’s a series of gorgeously austere set pieces that alone make it worth playing.

As previously noted, the game does feature some emotion-based interactivity. Occasionally, when Peter has to contribute to a conversation, you get an ‘emotion prompt’ that allegedly can affect how the game progresses. (I’ll note that they do often mirror the beacon that is clearly visible in the opening of the game.)

As I’ve only played it once, I can’t attest to the efficacy of that, but I do have a hard time imagining that the game significantly plays out much differently in the end, regardless of your emotional choices and that’s fine by me! It is telling the story it wants to tell. As with most stories, it’s not about the conclusion, but the journey.

HARMONY: THE FALL OF REVERIE (2023)

July 11, 2023

(PC/PS5/Switch/Xbox) Developer Don’t Nod are mostly known for creating decision-centric, narrative-forward works such as their LIFE IS STRANGE series, so it’s not surprising that their latest game — HARMONY: THE FALL OF REVERIE (HARMONY from here on out) — takes narrative branching and decisions even further.

However, unlike any of their prior games, this is a visual novel. You aren’t navigating a character through 3D environments. You aren’t pressing ‘X to interact’. You talk to a number of characters who inhabit the town of Atina on a slightly-not-too-distant-future cyberpunk Earth trying to overthrow an exploitative and immoral corporation, while also juggling the needs of almost-gods (called ‘Aspirations’) — the likes of which go by the names of Chaos, Bliss, Power, Glory, etc. — who live in Reverie which is another realm altogether and have helped guide humanity over the ages.

So, basically cyberpunk mythology. If you’re into that, you’re into it. However, don’t go into this game thinking “Oh, it’s Don’t Nod! More teen angst and tears!” because you will be greatly disappointed. (Or you may be elated; I don’t know your taste.)

I’ll note that, if you think this is a thematic departure for Don’t Nod, it is not. Their first game was REMEMBER ME, a 3D action/adventure cyberpunk thriller that had a number of inventive techniques and a very striking design. Sadly it bombed, however the poor sales caused them to course correct into smaller, more intimate — and less-expensive to produce — games like LIFE IS STRANGE.

To backtrack a bit: you play as Polly, the daughter of Ursula — an impetuous free-spirited poet — who has disappeared, and Polly is back to help search for her, despite the fact that there’s a lot of bad blood and estrangement between Polly and her mother. Polly then becomes embroiled in both the scheming of the Aspirations as well as the revolutionaries in Atina, while still trying to maintain some sense of herself.

It sounds dense and complicated but, as noted above, it’s boilerplate cyberpunk mythos. However, it is very pretty boilerplate cyberpunk mythos! The background scenery is immaculately imbued with details but also really sets the disparate tone of the two realms, and it’s colorful! So much sun and surf and what I would call cozy urban landscapes. (You may disagree.)

I’d also like to note that, while the character designs aren’t as bonkers as say, PARADISE KILLER, they are sharp, and I really appreciated some of the more unconventional static postures, such as Polly consistently tugging at her own shoulder as a sign of apprehension, or the exuberance of Bliss’ gestures.

I’d be remiss to neglect the musical contribution of Don’t Nod staple Lena Raine, whose indelible work on LIFE IS STRANGE still rings through my head. It’s an aural treasure.

However, a visual novel is only as good as the story it tells, and while HARMONY spends a lot of time place setting, it pays off in the fourth act. (Yes, the game does explicitly break itself down into acts and chapters, just in case you weren’t absolutely aware that it is a visual novel.) The fourth act leans hard on a lot of Don’t Nod tropes — don’t worry, I won’t detail them but, if you’re familiar with their games, you’ll know them when you read them — but also serves as a humanist breather for the game. While it takes a while to get there, that’s when the game really comes into focus, narratively and interactively.

Yes, the interactivity. This is the real marvel of HARMONY. Don’t Nod takes dialogue trees to the next level here, swapping what’s usually just a ‘Select a Response’ prompt to a full-fledged actual dialogue tree that looks like a skill tree you need to continuously manage in a FINAL FANTASY game.

I’ve only played through the game once, although I will eventually make my way back as I don’t care for the impact of some of my initial decisions. (I’ll note: while the game does provide text hints as to the repercussions of your choices, they can often either be misconstrued or downright misleading.) It’s an extremely inventive implementation, but also feels like something a programmer definitely enacted because it’s basically just one big flowchart. I’m not going to complain about it though, as it’s a breath of fresh air.

One quibble: the text size? Way too fucking small. This is a complaint I’ve had since HD gaming was embraced, and it’s only become more of an issue: too many developers design these games on dev stations inches from their face, as opposed to playing on a TV several feet away.

I understand designers who get frustrated when variable font sizes are incongruent with their finely planned layouts — I remember the websites of the late 90s — but seriously. I know I’m getting old, but allow folks to adjust the font size, as well as subtitle drop shadow intensity. I don’t want to have to squint or lean towards the screen to read some superficial lore that may or may not aid me in my journey.

More and more game developers seem to be aware of this, but apparently not Don’t Nod, which seems strange (pun intended), and — for myself — resulted in an often frustrating experience given that this is a visual novel and text is paramount.

Last but not least, I’d like to underscore how refreshing it is to see a combative mother/daughter relationship in a game, one that isn’t fully explained but one that the player intuits. (Perhaps if I’d chosen a different branch here and there, I would know more, but I don’t!) Families are complicated, and HARMONY hones in on that in ways that some might find unlikeable but I simply find to be part of trying to live one’s life the way one wants to. Is that selfish? Perhaps. Whether you feel it is or not depends on which branch you choose.

CARTO (2020)

July 10, 2023

(PC/PS4/PS5/Switch/Xbox) There’s a thin line between cozy, fun puzzle games and cozy, frustrating puzzle games. Some video games look cute, swear that they’re a breezy affair, but then a few hours in you’re searching for walkthroughs and then shouting out to no one: “How the hell was I supposed to know to do that?!”

CARTO is from Taiwan developers Sunhead Games, and the central conceit is basically: “What if we had a Zelda game with no combat, and you could move and rotate the tiles that make up world maps?”

It’s a fantastic idea that they endless exploit, and it has more than a few other facets going for it: the art design is cartoonishly spectacular; it has a great score that I have accidentally fallen asleep to more than once; and the writing is an appropriate amount of whimsy and melancholy for all ages.

You play as Carto, a young girl who gets lost during a storm and is thrust onto islands where, when someone comes of age, they are forced to leave their family behind. Carto helps heal a lot of these people as she pushes forward to be reunited with her grandmother.

Like I said: whimsical, but also melancholy.

However, some of the puzzle design felt lacking to me. I rarely try to lean on walkthroughs and while I love logic and lateral thinking puzzles, I found some of the puzzles simply maddening and, when I found out the solution, I knew I would have never have solved them on my own.

(It doesn’t help that every fucking site that features walkthroughs now is just an endless array of modals, pop-ups, auto-refreshing and ads.)

That said, I do not regret my time with it, or my cheating. If you use walkthroughs when you realize you need them, it’s a very cozy and very cute experience. At first blush, you might think that it’s an adorable mobile game ported to consoles, but no — it’s far more substantive than that.

I AM DEAD (2020)

June 15, 2023

(PC/PS4/PS5/Switch/Xboxes) If you’ve played any video games released in the past twenty years, you’ve probably encountered a feature that allows you to rotate and zoom inventory items around to scrutinize the fine detailing the art department put into the work. Usually it feels like a bit of fluff, and I rarely take part in exploring the items because I waste enough time on games as it is.

Indie developers Hollow Games — and quality publisher Annapurna — took that conceit and built an entire game around it, and the result is an amazingly poignant and melancholy narrative puzzler experience.

I AM DEAD plainly lays out its narrative conceit: you play as recently deceased Morris Lupton, a longtime denizen of the fishing island of Shelmerston, New Zealand. He’s reunited with his long-lost dog Sparky, who somehow can talk now because it’s initially hand-waved because of the afterlife.

The island has a volcano that’s been dormant for years and years, but has started roiling and rumbling again, and Morris is tasked with finding a ghost who would like to placate it by minding it, replacing the current volcano minder. Sparky helps to guide Morris through finding a suitable replacement through seeking out memories from the living to help sniff out and materialize the ghosts of the past. Even better, the game sidesteps what could easily be a journey of grief and sadness, and instead celebrates a life well-lived.

The cartoonish art design is colorful and pops — it feels like COSTUME QUEST meets THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: WIND WAKER, but don’t let the aesthetics fool you. The game is properly mature and — while there’s no gore or even swearing — it’s about complex folks that may have had a rocky life, and have had their lives taken from them. Yes, you’ll be spending most of your time rotating and zooming items, but I AM DEAD breaks up the flow with an ingenious bit of storytelling that requires you to bring a memory into focus, and not in the usual lens-like focusing that most games attempt.

It is an emotional game, and a fantastical one that features fish people and an assortment of creatures (and even some robots) that wouldn’t be out-of-place in the game NIGHT IN THE WOODS (2017) — but in a way that pulls at your heartstrings instead of pulling your heart out. Also, for an indie game, it’s not your standard four-hours-then-you’re-done affair; it’s extremely substantial — about 10-15 hours, depending on how patient you are — allowing Hollow Games to serve up a multi-faceted world.

I admit, I did balk at playing it for some time, solely because of the potential dread of the title, but it’s a charming item of a game, and one that deserves more attention. (I’ll note that I had a hard time finding many fans of it, much less videos. There’s one folk song that they insert that I really wanted to embed because I love it when a game inserts a folk song as part of the adventure, but alas, it was nowhere to be found.)

UNPACKING (2021)

June 2, 2023

(macOS/PC/PS4/PS5/Switch/Xbox) UNPACKING is an adorably short but impactful indie game from developers Witch Beam that is basically an isometric interior design game. All you do is age and move from place-to-place, from apartment to apartment and so on. It’s one of the few games I’ve played that, while I imagine some 20-somethings might understand, really, it’s all about proper adulthood. The kind that requires a mortgage or, at least, striving to get to a point in which a bank will allot a mortgage to you.

This is a game about aging and compromising and figuring out what works for both you and your partner, and also just enjoying the space you’ll spend the bulk of your time in.

I realize that sounds heavy, but Witch Beam lightens the load for you. You can think about all of that, or you can just mindlessly open boxes and try to find where every object should live, because that is the entire game, and it’s supremely satisfying to do so. The narrative is just the icing on the cake.

The game leans on a lot of 16-bit era tropes, from the pixelated visuals, the isometric viewpoint, as well as the soundtrack, but that works in its favor — at least for me. It comes across as simple and endearing in a soft way, although the audio and sound design? Way better than the days of the SEGA Genesis. Goddamn, I am not one for ASMR, but this is a balm for your ears.

Again, this is a very short — but very fulfilling — game. Is it for everyone? Well, no, particularly if you’re consistently seeking videogame thrills. However, it is very sweet and cozy and amazingly designed and something I think most folks would enjoy.

(If you watch the trailer, pay attention to the pig. That’s all I’ll say.)