A wonderful look again at childhood within the French countryside.
Considered one of my earliest reminiscences of childhood goes to a close-by artwork museum with my mother. She was an artwork pupil at school, and all through my childhood she beloved to share her ardour for artwork with my brother and me, so I spent many moments as a youth taking artwork lessons and strolling by means of galleries, lovely items of artwork. My mother particularly loves watercolors, so taking part in by means of Dordogne felt, very appropriately, like a visit again to my very own childhood.
Dordogne is a narrative of remembrance, of revisiting the nice and unhealthy of childhood. The sport follows Mimi, a French lady in her early 30s, visiting her just lately handed grandmother’s house to search for a field of things left behind for her. In doing so, she is piecing collectively her fragmented reminiscences of a summer time 20 years earlier than that they spent collectively on this home within the French countryside, alongside the Dordogne river. The sport takes place over eight chapters, going forwards and backwards in time as you expertise younger Mimi’s summer time and grownup Mimi connecting the dots a couple of previous she had forgotten.
Essentially the most instantly beautiful side is the artwork type, which is a unfastened watercolor aesthetic that makes this an extremely lovely sport to play by means of. Wandering by means of this depiction of the French countryside is a pleasure, with each piece of surroundings a visible deal with. Early on you get a digital camera to take images with as younger Mimi, and I might have performed and loved a sport of simply capturing these moments. I’m particularly keen on any moments close to the river, which entails some attractive reflections, however this complete sport is aesthetically pleasing from begin to end. Past that, although, the presentation of your complete sport is great. The music is inconspicuous however matches each scene completely, and the audio results are elegant.
Gameplay is a bit more durable to present full-throated reward, with sure facets I loved and sure facets that I want had gone again to the drafting board. Top-of-the-line elements of the sport was making a scrapbook binder as younger Mimi, ending most days with making a web page of a photograph, a sticker (picked up both whereas strolling round or throughout occasions), and a few poetry based mostly off of phrases you encounter throughout your day. This results in an important feeling of connection, permitting for some type of self-expression and making you join on to Mimi’s emotions and ideas. Nonetheless, all through the remainder of the gameplay there are a selection of point-and-click components that usually felt extra like a chore than the rest. At its worst it felt like Octodad, the place you’re manipulating Mimi’s limbs to do a process (for instance brushing her enamel), which does not have a story or emotional weight however isn’t partaking on a technical degree both. Whereas I recognize sure components of this interactivity, I want there was a bit extra thought to which scenes have been proven and which elements have been interactive, since sure components work very effectively (to not spoil the story, however one thing got here again late sport that made me genuinely emotional).
Whereas I did benefit from the story loads, this additionally got here with some caveats. The characters have been very effectively written, with Mimi particularly being an important perspective character. The household battle can be attention-grabbing, and I discovered myself propelled like Mimi to find extra. At instances, nevertheless, I want there was extra to find. The home you’re staying at and surrounding areas are lovely and really feel like there ought to be extra to find than there’s. On the core there’s this query of why Mimi misplaced her reminiscence and why the household is estranged, the reply was so rushed that I used to be left questioning “is that it?” when the sport got here to a detailed. Different components are extra implied and never totally answered, which might be high quality if there have been extra items to the story to place collectively. The items we had have been nice; the story as an entire simply felt considerably incomplete. I additionally ought to point out that all through these numerous scenes the load instances have been for much longer than they need to be, which added to the flawed pacing.
Dordogne is an attention-grabbing, imperfect sport with some phenomenal design and visuals. The watercolor graphics make for one of the vital beautiful video games I’ve seen for some time, and a few of the interactive selections labored extremely effectively, such because the exercise of placing images and poems collectively to make the binder Mimi longs to rediscover. Whereas there are particular areas of frustration, I finally loved my time in exploring Mimi’s childhood reminiscences (and my very own) by means of artwork.