else Heart.Break() ticks so many of my boxes that it comes dangerously close to being my theoretical dream game. There's a simulated city with NPC schedules like in Ultima or Shenmue, there's creative freeform hacking with actual code, there's mucking around in places you're not supposed to be in, there are problems instead of puzzles, there are spacey-surreal vibes, there's hanging out with friends in clubs and cafés. All that from a dev team that's just too cool to sell themselves as an "indie studio" and instead answers the question of who actually made the game by just listing a bunch of awesome-sounding swedish names.

No, else Heart.Break() is not perfect. It's short, it's easy to break, and it's a little anticlimactic. But it's a game where I can walk back to my hotel at night while drunk, and then decide I'd rather hack myself a super coffee and spend the whole night sitting in a public park, listening to a lonely stranger play saxophone. I know I'm pretty alone in this, but that's exactly the kind of shit I play video games for.