MaryMary
Mary Georgescu   New York, New York, United States
 
 
Nincs információ.
Jelenleg offline
Értékelés-vitrin
0,7 órát játszva
With You- A cooperative two player game, reflects on relationships, relationship dynamics, and how you navigate those relationships together and takes you on a short powerful journey using puzzles.


This game is a work of art, from the narrative, mechanics, sound design, level design, and the player interactions- this game is very much the essence of it’s bubbly brilliant designer. Have you seen those leggies!? Let’s get into it!

Using the physics of the leggies your character can physically make itself taller or smol in an attempt to get over, get under, or generally traverse the world you are in via chapters. While the leggies give you the ability to move around they also have a bit of tension if you hold up which feels really nice in the controls. You feel tense as you extend as far as you can and then bounce back to a smoler state. You could honestly just hang out on one level and run around and feel good.

This back and forth of towering over someone or becoming smaller and dropping your leggies is like having a conversation without having a conversation- it’s all in the legs. Negotiation for placement, how do you achieve new forms together, who has to drop first, who has to drop second- reinforced by the fact that you two are completely different and restricted by your shapes. You cannot complete the other characters puzzles. The physics of being glued to the other character and yeeting yourselves across areas that are cut off for one character of the other is so satisfying. That bond and support is made transparent by the blue glue between the characters. There was never a moment I felt I wasn’t given feedback by the game- it’s very transparently communicated in it’s UX/UI.

The artistic direction of being simple shapes, with a gorgeous muted palette helps keep the focus on the narrative and the abstraction of working on a relationship together by solving the puzzles and is complimented by the music. You must work in tandem or fail together. But let’s talk about failure- because you don’t really fail- you just persist to exist.

As the music smooths out all the stress and anxiety of the moment, you can meditate in this world which is alive and moving. There are characters that are not just in the background! They bump into you and disrupt your ability to achieve rhythm with your partner. The leggies are nudging and pushing and are bumbling around you. I think we can all relate to friends and relatives all trying to provide thoughts or words of wisdom when things just don’t seem to be clicking and how often do they just get in the way of what really matters- hearing out and working with the person you started the journey with.

And let’s not forget the dynamic player camera that brings you in and out of focus of your characters at key points throughout the game. This delicate camera work really takes you in and out of your own mental state as well. There are times for thinking inward and focusing on the next steps and there are times to just stop and look at everything around you- and just be. There is no ticking clock. Although at times the world does seem to be moving on without you.

The crescendo of being out of rhythm and distant to your partner and yet still on this journey is reminiscent of conversations becoming more and more difficult and parting ways. And for the player characters to just be running around in unison at the end feels like you’ve returned to being mutual friends.

We don't need long complicated games- we need games that heal us right now and this game was a healing balm and a point of mediation.