Dying is a scary thing. It's a common fear and I'm not afraid to admit its my biggest one. I Am Dead knows how sensitive of a topic this is, and I was surprised with how well they handled it especially with such a positive outlook. A game with a title like that turning out to be so charming and wholesome was a very welcome surprise. Most games arent afraid to bring up things like death, but I think this games greatest strength is how boldly it serves as a little beacon - or a lighthouse, if you will - of hope. It doesnt beat you down and make you depressed about one of the most depressing facts of life but it gives you a little nudge on the shoulder and let's you know that just maybe, everything will be alright.
You play as Morris Lupton, recently deceased. One of the best indie game protagonists quite frankly. He is just the absolute most swell down to earth guy, the kind you really would want as a friend in life. His voice is as soft as he is, and a big part of this games personality is how warm of a presence he is throughout the story. He cares about the island so deeply and you can feel that through every thing he says. Most of the game is about viewing the memories left behind of other ghosts on the island. This is basically the main theme of the game: even when dead we live on in the memories around us. Whether its a lover or a passing acquaintance, memories of us keep us from truly being gone.
The voice acting, graphics and art style are all lovely like everything else encompassing this game. Shelmerston is a hell of a place, largely fiction but it feels so alive. Very intriguing lore, head to toe in fun little details and an abundance of colorful characters and landmarks. Without the great voice performances, calming music and picture book-esque art a lot of this games wackiness may not of been appreciated. But it all just works so well, and it feels like it could be real somewhere out there - fish people included.
The gameplay is mostly finding hidden objects, mementos of folks past. But this game puts a very fun twist on it. You can click on each individual object and splice it, giving you a peak inside. It's a little hard for me to explain, but it makes looking around the environments really engaging. Everything is packed with detail and little easter eggs, and its always fun to see the inside of a pie or splice into a water tower and find a little octopus just chilling in there. You also splice and manipulate certain objects into certain angles for the collectibles. You never have to get it exactly right, as the game is generous making finding them all yourself very fun and intuitive. There are also optional riddles each level that are really gonna pick at your brain and expect you to find some of the most well hidden things. These are pretty hard, and for some reason are timed which makes it so you basically have to either be sure on the object before starting the riddle or play a really frantic guessing game. Its unnecessary. I used a guide for most of these, you don't get much as a reward but it is a pretty funny one.
The only thing that stops this from having enough points to be a 4.5/5 with rounding is that the ending is just... not all quite there. I think it says enough and gets across what it wants to. It's wholesome much like the rest of the game, but I think It would of greatly benefited from just being a hair less vague about how things all come to a close.
I can't think of a better compliment to give this game than just this: I'm a little less scared now.
Trophy Completion - 100% (Platinum #208)
Time Played: 7 hours 54 minutes
Nancymeter - 84/100
Game Completion #105 of 2022
August Completion #25
You play as Morris Lupton, recently deceased. One of the best indie game protagonists quite frankly. He is just the absolute most swell down to earth guy, the kind you really would want as a friend in life. His voice is as soft as he is, and a big part of this games personality is how warm of a presence he is throughout the story. He cares about the island so deeply and you can feel that through every thing he says. Most of the game is about viewing the memories left behind of other ghosts on the island. This is basically the main theme of the game: even when dead we live on in the memories around us. Whether its a lover or a passing acquaintance, memories of us keep us from truly being gone.
The voice acting, graphics and art style are all lovely like everything else encompassing this game. Shelmerston is a hell of a place, largely fiction but it feels so alive. Very intriguing lore, head to toe in fun little details and an abundance of colorful characters and landmarks. Without the great voice performances, calming music and picture book-esque art a lot of this games wackiness may not of been appreciated. But it all just works so well, and it feels like it could be real somewhere out there - fish people included.
The gameplay is mostly finding hidden objects, mementos of folks past. But this game puts a very fun twist on it. You can click on each individual object and splice it, giving you a peak inside. It's a little hard for me to explain, but it makes looking around the environments really engaging. Everything is packed with detail and little easter eggs, and its always fun to see the inside of a pie or splice into a water tower and find a little octopus just chilling in there. You also splice and manipulate certain objects into certain angles for the collectibles. You never have to get it exactly right, as the game is generous making finding them all yourself very fun and intuitive. There are also optional riddles each level that are really gonna pick at your brain and expect you to find some of the most well hidden things. These are pretty hard, and for some reason are timed which makes it so you basically have to either be sure on the object before starting the riddle or play a really frantic guessing game. Its unnecessary. I used a guide for most of these, you don't get much as a reward but it is a pretty funny one.
The only thing that stops this from having enough points to be a 4.5/5 with rounding is that the ending is just... not all quite there. I think it says enough and gets across what it wants to. It's wholesome much like the rest of the game, but I think It would of greatly benefited from just being a hair less vague about how things all come to a close.
I can't think of a better compliment to give this game than just this: I'm a little less scared now.
Trophy Completion - 100% (Platinum #208)
Time Played: 7 hours 54 minutes
Nancymeter - 84/100
Game Completion #105 of 2022
August Completion #25
3 Comments
Good review. I agree that the ending is probably the weakest part of the game; I feel like the story itself set up a premise for the whole "adventure" and that the ending kind of chose to forget about the premise, and felt a bit abrupt. It's still a really cozy game that reminded me that remembering how we lived is much more important than remembering how we died, and I really enjoyed my time overall.
Yeah I get what they were going for with the ending, but I dont think they had all the pieces there to pull off an ambiguous one like that
Assenemy
1 year ago