The Immaculate Drag

The Immaculate Drag

released on Jan 17, 2022

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The Immaculate Drag

released on Jan 17, 2022

A small game about letting go. Stay up late. Smoke cigarettes. Talk to strangers. Think about what you've lost. Someone you used to love? Or someone you used to be?


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Exceptionally well written, it's a must-play for fans of small walking sims.

It goes for a very specific tone and it kinda succeeds, but it's a bit too compressed for that. I can get behind the overly philosophical mono-/dialogues which works well with the aesthetic, but it's all too sudden and too dense, it's like reading a self-help book with a synthwave soundtrack in the background. I would've liked to see something more grounded in the world itself, not some discretely placed dialogue opportunities, and a bit more breathing room.

The Immaculate Drag pulls you right into the melancholy of walking through a night city street with a hazy goal and a chance to meet like-minded souls. Most of them are out in the streets to take a breather, much like yourself, and next morning every encounter with them might seem like a distant dream, disconnected from a blazing sun of reality. Sometimes it's a reminder that you're not alone in your worries and painful memories, and sometimes it's a whole new perspective given as a casual remark from a total stranger that you're bound to never meet again. Same as this very night when you're out in the streets to move at your own pace towards the dawn is to never repeat again. Existing only here and now, flowing between every step and inevitably taking you closer to your next immaculate drag that might as well be the last.

I can't help but feel it was heavily inspired by El invierno en Lisboa (Winter In Lisbon) written by Antonio Muñoz Molina. It has the distinct smoky, jazzy, desperate love story vibe that dominates both the book and the game.

Dang smoking and having a lost love sure is cool