I’m officially abandoning this one. I loved the original and even played through the DLC, but this one seemed to lack a certain “je ne sais quoi”. Was it that the levels lacked the Mario-flair of the original? That certainly didn’t help this outing, the the level design is much more engaging this time around. I think my biggest detraction is the difficulty: it’s just too easy. I don’t think I played the original on hard, and I’m not tactical genius, but this was kinda boring on even the hardest difficulty. I also think there were too many battles—cut it in half and ratchet up the intensity of each one and I’d be curious to see if I would enjoy it more.

I almost wrote off I Am Dead. My first impression was that it was twee with little to say or do. But I stuck with it as it was short and didn’t ask much of the player (and I’m a sucker for a short game). By the halfway point in the game, it became apparent I was writing off this game too early and that there was a deeper tale unfolding about memory, death, and legacy. While the gameplay is simple and amounts to little more than a hidden object game with the ability to look into objects, it was satisfying to match your understanding of the character and their memory to the lost object. And there is some startling truth to the gameplay—memories are all that are left of the dead, and these are often connected to objects. Lives are revealed by looking deeper and peeling back layers. It may be cliche that the outsiders and oddballs in this world turn out to be misunderstood sweethearts, yet most of their stories had enough dimension that these revelations felt “earned”. And the larger story of the island was interesting though incomplete with its interconnected history. In the end, the game reminded me that each life leaves an indelible, if unnoticed, mark on the places and people where it lived.