On the one hand I'm sort of glad we as a society have progressed passed the 'Walking Simulator' era of gaming where you slowly gawk at graphics that seldom age well enough to warrant an expiration date over a year or two with very little actual gameplay involved. But on the other, apart from maybe The Witness this is definitely one of the better ones. Like most of these, the story does most of the heavy-lifting for you - with almost insultingly easy 'crime solving' elements tacked in there to trick you into thinking this is a game and not an interactive movie. But as that interactive movie - it really ain't bad. There's this impending emotional horror in progressing through such quaint, stunningly pretty nature environments to follow a story that progressively becomes more and more doused with pure dread. The ending is a bit of a cop-out but otherwise it's full of really affecting setpieces of poignancy that seldom left me with dry eyes. Not sure how much longer this can still be played with fresh eyes and remain as good as it is now, but I dig it.

Reviewed on Aug 13, 2022


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