![]() ![]() There’s also sequences where the game refuses to let you close your eyes and gloss over reality, with you having to keep your eyes open long enough for revelations to come pouring out to heartbreaking effect. There isn’t much grand deviation from this gameplay, though there are a few sections where you have to close your eyes and focus on hushed discussions in other rooms instead. It’s a devastating lesson that Before Your Eyes delivers masterfully. I often found myself frustrated at not being able to hang onto these precious moments, but isn’t that what life is? To never be able to have everything you want, to not get stuck on “could haves “and “should haves”, to realise that life simply can’t stand still? You have to let go. Sometimes you want to just sit and listen as your parents talk to you about their day, enjoy looking up at the stars, or try to make every second count in a final phone call with someone you hold dear. Trouble is: sometimes you don’t want to blink. Every time you blink, time moves forward, whether it’s a few minutes, weeks, months or even years. You start, well, at the start of the main character’s life, as a young, quiet boy with parents who love him very much. Not only is the technology super straightforward to figure out, it’s pretty much flawless even though my glasses had as much glare as an anime villain. Actual, real life blinks that you do as a person towards a webcam. The long and short of it: You are in limbo and meet a wolf (dog? coyote?) in a sharp suit who wants to guide you to the afterlife, but first you have to tell him your life story through blinks. To go into too much detail would really spoil it, the best way to experience Before Your Eyes is entirely blind - no pun intended. But Before Your Eyes, man - it had me blubbing like a tragic whale.īefore Your Eyes is one of the most affecting games of the year, a narrative game with a hook so simple yet so genius that WB Games would definitely patent it if they were the publisher. This stupid mental block turns me into a bit of a statue when it comes to sad movies - I can recognise that Marley was a very good boy, but there’s a cynicism that stops Owen Wilson’s sad face from really hitting me like the filmmakers so desperately want it to. I’ve cried a lot more than normal over the last couple of years, but still not a “normal” amount. ![]() I mention that upfront because, thanks to some pig-headed machismo instilled in me from when I was young, I only cry when people die. Next up: Before Your Eyes.īefore Your Eyes made me cry piss tears, even. To celebrate this collection of sun rotations, we’re looking at the best games of 2021. ![]()
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