I played this as part of my backlog-thinning project. It's been a really great kick in the pants to try some stuff that would otherwise languish.

I finished this in one sitting, which is something I basically never do. It had its hooks in me early. It's low budget enough that you know it's could go anywhere, story-wise, and that kept me interested through the sometimes-stilted dialogue and minimal gameplay segments. This is barely a game; it's as though it's all caught up in telling its story and then remembers "oh, you're here too. Well, have a button to push, I guess." Nevertheless, these moments always seemed to be added thoughtfully and I liked how they gave some tactility to the world.

The story is a relentless barrage of every kind of tragedy and injustice, to the point where it's almost comical. I spent most of the playtime asking myself "Is it earning this?" It pulls out all the stops when it comes to heaviness, and doesn't really examine any of these topics in any depth. But it's not a game about terminal illness, or racism, or poverty; those are just a few of the many dangers in this game's hostile, unpredictable world (and, I might add, the most mundane; I don't want to spoil all the wild shit that goes down in this game). Nor does it seem to be a game about processing trauma and healing, as I kind of expected in the opening hours.

I think this is a game about the big fuzzy line between childhood and adulthood. When playing as the mom most of your gameplay choices focus on the tension between setting a good, principled example for the kid and doing what needs to be done to find some kind of safety for the two of you in the short term. Playing as the kid most of the choices involve how tuned in you are to the things the adults mean but don't say. He wants (and needs) to grow up fast; she wants him to grow up right.

That's the part of it that felt the most relatable. Not directly to my experience, but just the idea that sometimes an unbelievable amount of terrible things happen all at once, and the choices you make as you navigate those moments provide the foundation that you'll build from once the worst has passed.

At the end of the game you get a little wrap-up explaining what kind of adult the kid grows up to be based on your choices. The ending I got was pretty satisfying and it did make me curious to see other forks. The game being so short makes it much more likely for that to happen, but so many heavy topics crammed into a 3 and a half hour game means I probably won't be revisiting it for a while.

That's ok though because this game definitely left an impact. Visually this reminded me of Silent Hill in the way they leveraged the low poly characters and limited environments into a very unique style with some truly beautiful scenes. Because the models are so low fi, there are no close-ups. Everything is shot from a sort of medium distance, giving it a detached, almost voyeuristic quality. The presentation is incredibly simple and sometimes feels like watching a play. The English voice acting is hit or miss, but it seems like a they did a good job prioritizing the important characters on that front so it didn't bother me. For how short and simple of a game this was, it has a huge cast. The localization wasn't always fantastic and there were some weirdly loud foley effects, but at the end of the day the arresting visuals, likable main characters and wild unpredictable story won me over.