What happens to the anecdotes we say? How do they grow up beyond us? Who remembers us, even if they never know our name?
These are some of the questions that Welcome to Elk, An independent game of the Danish studio triple topping that will be released on Nintendo Switch and Linux tomorrow February 10, asks and aims to answer.
Over the past two decades, the border between truth and fiction has blurred. The legitimization and power of false news, “reality” television, Photoshop, automatically automatically, are only some of the tracks. In the literature, self -fiction is increasing – a relatively new term to identify the unusual mixture of truth and imagination. Welcome to Elk, An “biographical adventure taking place on an island like no other”,nters space with balance.
Fun minigames in a thoughtful story
We enter the small Nordic ice village of Elk at the same time as the protagonist Frigg. She is welcomed in town with a night at the island’s bar, the hermit and a noisy consumer game. There is a new mini-game (for lack of a better word) every day that Frigg is in town.
The mini-games are a delight, impressive in their range and also in their alignment with history Welcome to Elk Try to say it. My favorite was during the second night of Frigg to the hermit when she does karaoke – the keys appear on the screen that allow the free player in his voice. An excellent mixture of sound made me feel that I was a singer, for the first time in my life, singing and evolving with the instruments.
Music throughout the game is wonderful, align with emotions (all ups and downs) and history beats. The sound landscape corresponds to the simple but effective visual landscape: the characters and the interactive options are in color; Everything else is flooded with white. It is an effective and attractive design for the snowy city.
From adjustment to bravery in uncomfortable conversations, Welcome to Elk is tangibly Nordic, and it should be a fresh air puff for North American players.
An experience in fact and fiction
I was hooked Welcome to Elk In the first 20 minutes and about an hour, the game changed the formula. Frigg enters her house and there is a strange man there (my heart beats quickly!). When she’s going to speak to him, it fades in black so that a real person speaks. Yes, human images, live, video. It is not cut and serious.
It reminded me of an excellent documentary, Renaissance (2011), Who interviews the year after the year for a decade, the family and friends of people who died during the September 11 attacks. The film is a chronicle of sorrow, mourning and healing. Welcome to Elk Creates an interactive and fun space to explore what a trauma means and how to continue to live.
Welcome to Elk Isn’t that the first game to use what is called FMV (full-moving video). Kickstarter’s success His storyA game of silent Hill Creator Sam Barlow where players are looking for in the police archives, launched the modern era of FMV games in 2015. But this is the first game I saw where it is clear that we are watching an interview, a memory, an ordinary person – not an actor with a script. Man shares his memory of a tragic event, the one who shares many similarities with the day that Frigg has just had.
With images, there are also text stories that appear in the game. It is an impressive and commendable experience. Developers share on their website:
Stories in Welcome to Elk The people who know us and / or were there when the events took place. All are told of memory. The way they are used both on our web page and in the game, is faithful to the main story. However, just like names, places and other details are modified, renowned and often cropped to protect the real people behind them, therefore, we call them great stories …
They are rewritten and combined in a single linear story. The characters can play a role in a story where they were not originally part, and it was not that we who designed the game that will ever know – or get closer to the true truth of the stories.
The game succeeds the most when it pushes the limits of what we expect from games and narration. I played some extremely strange but attractive mini-games. The characters said things that seemed natural but poignant. The understanding of Frigg on herself and her environment evolves as the days continue, a process that asks the player to rethink what they remember, the anecdotes they say and the relationships they are tie.
Short but sweet
Welcome to Elk is a short game, which I appreciate. A character mentions how nice it is when the stories do not exceed their welcome. Another reflects that “sometimes it’s something – a good story.”
These comments seem slightly pointed, a justification for the length and extent of the experience. These come towards the end of the game, and maybe these concerns are correct-the end arrives a little earlier than I would like. But, it is an end that corresponds to the mission and the vision of the game, and I cannot contest with it.
To welcome tO Wapiti is a much stronger competitor to the “calm artistic emo” atmosphere than the too steep atmosphere Vieuil’s journey; comforting, especially compared to the really alarming Inside; more manageable than the burden of Life is strange. Welcome to Elk does something fundamentally different from other new games. I congratulate the commitment of Triple Topping to push the limits of the genre adventure in the games.
Welcome to Elk Originally launched in 2020 on PC and Xbox, but it made its Nintendo Switch debut here in 2022. It is a natural adjustment on the more mobile platform. It plays well on the big and the small screen, and is a thoughtful (and complete) experience for a winter afternoon.
“I’m more than a sad story, Frigg.”
By playing, I thought about the power of anecdotes. The game recognizes through a variety of creative communications and mini-games how the stories that we tell and tell us become part of us. “Hey, I told you about time ____” is a way to give meaning to the things we have experienced or heard. I always refer to something that my husband heard a seven -year -old child tell the dentist over a decade ago. Images and quotes become a shortcut so that we can communicate more important ideas with friends and family. The arrival of Frigg on the island of Elk allows us to dive into the psyche of the shared history of a community.
When I succeeded in the credits of the game, I expected that the menu was updated with an option to review the interviews or reread the typed anecdotes or even replay the mini-games by themselves (you know that I wanted Karaoke again). But nothing like this appears, just an option to restart the game.
While I was sitting there watching Elk’s colorful rendering and my 100%backup file, I wondered if my hypothesis was intrinsically American. I had these thoughts of, Give me my price. Give me the thing again without having to work for it. Give me the chance to see this again.
I knew, looking at this menu screen, that it was not the purpose of Welcome to Elk. The point of Welcome to Elk is to live a little world of stories and lives. And there is no way to dive your toes. Like the Lovable Alcohol Icolic Schoolteneur Sue, it is sometimes necessary to dive into these icy waters and swim to the bank.
Score: 8.9 / 10
* Review the code provided by the publisher
