Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Year Walk



Genre: Adventure, Point and click

Developer: Simogo

Released: 6. March 2014


In the old days man tried to catch a glimpse of the future in the strangest of ways. Enter the world of the horrifying Swedish folklore world in this great indie game.





The Good:

- interesting, seldom known folklore

- beautiful art style

- the environment draw in the player

The bad:

- short



First came out as mobile game, I am glad (very very very glad) that it came out for PC as well. The player enters the world of Swedish folklore. This world is not known, it's creatures are long forgotten. The protagonist, Daniel, a boy who follows an ancient tradition, yearwalking. The men have to enter the dark forest on New Years Eve, and who are brave enough can see the future. This is not always as good as it sounds. Through his journey, Daniel meets terrific creatures of the forest, all taken from the Swedish folklore. The chills went down my spine when I saw most of them, even in this cartoony drawn style, not to mention imagining that I meet them in real life! Hats off to the person who researched all this, did a very detailed job, mostly seen in the Encyclopedia. The Encyclopedia contains all the creatures, and infos about them, plus it's a big part of the game, and help get that special chilly dark mood. I won't spoil the story and tell more about these creatures.


The graphics are amazing, not realistic, but very beautiful and create a disturbing, haunting mood. From the very start it feels that something is not quite right, and after meeting the strange creatures and finding the clues it gets more and more macabre. The sounds of the forest, the murmurs and other ambient music just puts the dot on the i. The art style is very unique, the color palette and symbols fit amazingly to the theme.


The game consits of walking around in 2D, and interacting with certain objects. This can be a little confusing with the many places, but luckily there's a map. There are some puzzles, although I would have loved to see more of them, they are not too hard, just perfectly challenging to be able to focus more on the story and what's happening around. The journal, Encyclopedia and Map all play major roles in the game so pay attention to them, and if anybody's stuck use the hints.


This horror love story has such a powerful ending, in the end gives the player intense emotions. Sometimes the fact and fiction gets mixed up, but in the end everything will make sense. The only negative that it is very short. It can be played in an hour or so, depending on how fast can the player solve the puzzles. It is replayable, and RECOMMENDED to walk again.

Final Score:

10/10

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