says it all on the tin.
ill go first, obviously- The Eternal Return, made by the same guy who made Revenge Of The Sunfish. i played both today, the latter of which i couldn’t finish because of how laggy it was (for me, at least). here’s his website.
anyhoozle! TER is a walking / driving sim wherein you go through what is described as the collective psyche. it’s surreal, tongue in cheek, meta, and very, very odd. it’s also very short, and i enjoyed it quite a bit.
it touched me, though, mostly because of the quotes on the wall and the things that happen that correlate to them- for example, there is text on the wall in the beginning of the game, next to a bunch of pictures of cats and kittens, about how all of them are likely dead by now. then in the next room, as you drive by some more pictures of cats and kittens, they’re replaced by red text that says “DEAD”, and variations of it.. there’s also several quotes about buddhism (though it is never directly mentioned, i presume they relate to nirvana in some way), the meaning of life and death, etc. i related to them, and they reminded me of the thoughts i have when im feeling particularly nihilistic (as… corny, as that sounds).
though, the rooms that struck me the most were the drug room and the graveyard.
the drug room has various quotes about how you can get addicted to drugs, and how they’ll kill you, which is simple enough, but it just struck me. there’s also lots of visuals of drugs, overdosing, etc, and it just… struck me. i will not say why, because im not revealing information about my personal life to a video game website, but it hit. hard. especially the section where you take mushrooms, and each time you do, you scream in anguish.
the graveyard is exactly what it says on the tin; you go through a graveyard. however, there’s text that talks about death, and how you too will become a rotting corpse, directly after you scare away some crows feasting on a corpse. it reminded me all too much of my complicated relationship with death- as a concept, with my own death, with other’s deaths.
i can’t quite articulate why the game hit so hard for me beyond that, but it struck a cord, and it felt like some odd, surreal depiction of my trauma and my thoughts. but who knows!
what’s touched you guys?