![]() But the thing to bear in mind is that surreal can be used by different people to mean different things – some would argue something can only be surreal if it came after the rise of the movement through Dadaism at the end of the 19th century. Now you could argue that supernatural beings in themselves are surreal, in as much as they are devoid from rationality. The game is very much story driven and just having the player setting off on this reality bending quest is very satisfying.īut here’s where I found the game to be most surreal. You’re isolated, having left your lover behind in your mill and that comes across really well. The forest is covered in snow and every so often frozen flakes will drift over your peripheral vision and slide under the tall, dark trees. The feel of that setting seems (and I speak as someone who is not Swedish or an expert on Swedish mythology) like it carries on the feel of the folktale. When the design of the world and the characters is so strong, it’s easy to be submersed in the mode of the game, even if it’s not something you usually go with. It’s interesting, in theory I never like the idea of point and click and yet when I played this I completely forgot that that’s what I was doing. It’s a point and click based game-play and you can move side to side, backwards ad forwards through a beautifully rendered, whiteout forest. So the game is based on a rich, if mysterious, tradition – and indeed we follow the protagonist from a first person perspective as they leave their lover in order to fulfil the year walk. #Year walk mylings freeThere’s even one section that suggests if the walker does the year walk seven years in a row then they’ll meet a man with a Runkavle (I still don’t know what this is so feel free to comment if you know) in his mouth – it’s said that if they have the courage to snatch it from him then they will become wise and knowing of hidden things. if the walker sees small dwarfish men carrying carts then it means next years harvest would be good. There are various symbols littered through these tales e.g. It’s said this removed the walker of their Christianity and so supernatural beings would visit them to test their earnestness – if the walker should succeed, then they would be granted an insight into the future. As they walk they should go to the nearest church, walk around it three times and the blow in the keyhole. It’s essentially an old legend that says an individual should lock themselves up for a period of time without eating, drinking, talking to anyone or seeing the light of a fire and the go walking. ![]() The game, originally written to be a film, is based on an old Swedish tradition called ‘Årsgång’ – which I’ve heard most accurately described as “a complex form of divination”. In that way I guess this isn’t really a review, more just an exploration of the weirder bits of this game (trust me there are many.) ![]() True, it may be more in line with horror as a genre but it re-imagines certain aspects of Swedish tradition in a surreal and thoroughly weird sense. ![]() It was when looking at the game ‘Back to Bed’ for my previous article that I came across this little gem, ‘Year Walk’ (Simogo, 2013) and I just had to write about it. ![]()
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