Before Your Eyes has a unique mechanic in that is controlled through the player's blinking. Is this occasionally a gimmicky mechanic? Absolutely. Except for the times that it is not.

The game uses this mechanic to tell a well-worn kind of story. It is a story of an artist with an overbearing parent struggling with his own success. And it hits the beats you would expect in a story like that. Except when it doesn't. When it does something new.

The best use of Before Your Eyes' blinking mechanic is in the game's final scene, a moment where the game showed me that it understood exactly what kind of story it wanted to tell. It is a moment where the gameplay matches the needs of the story so well. I was blinking through tears, and the game knew I would be and accounted for it. This is the kind of gameplay and story synergy I search for in games.

Before Your Eyes is not a masterpiece, but it is a damn good video game.