It also helps ease the problem of the unengaging mechanics. The larger focus on the visuals and music compensates for the total lack of a conventional narrative. Technically, The Longest Road on Earth is marvellous. GRAPHICS AND AUDIO – BITTERSWEET MONOCHROME To sum up, if you’re looking for a game that requires a little more urgency from you through its mechanics– maybe this isn’t for you. Maybe they could have implemented an interesting mechanic that integrates the stories together somehow. They could have taken advantage of its extensive soundtrack and utilized it a little more creatively. The game could well have benefitted from some more direct engagement through its mechanics. That being said, I realise not everyone is with me on that. I am of the firm belief that a game being boring or frustrating does not necessarily rob it of its artistic integrity or inherently make it a bad game. In retrospect, perhaps if it concerns itself with the mundanity and the maddening regularity of life, it has every right to reflect that in its mechanics. Unfortunately, the execution here leaves a little to be desired.īut it’s not that simple. Plenty of games have offered stripped-down mechanics in favour of a more cohesive emotional effort. It’s in much the same vein as visual novels or walking simulators. On the whole, the game’s mechanics take a step back to better platform the sharper focus on presentation and narrative. Occasionally, you’ll tackle something that might be called a minigame. You can move left or right and interact with various objects. In regards to gameplay, there isn’t too much to talk about. It is exactly what it needs to be to tell the stories it wants to tell. However, I’d say that whether or not the monotonousness works or doesn’t work doesn’t matter nearly as much as the fact that the mundane is. That’s certainly true – it might not be for everyone. Finally, you might think that the problem of centering a game around the mundane is that it runs the risk of being a little mundane itself. However, the story isn’t told through dialogue or narration, rather through its visual storytelling and poignant music – so I’ll get to that later.
THE LONGEST ROAD ON EARTH SERIES
On the whole, it succeeds in delivering a bittersweet series of micro-stories for you to interpret and immerse yourself in. It tackles quite a broad demographic in a modern, industrial and occasionally banal world that we all can easily recognise. I’m positive anyone can find something touching in here somewhere. But that’s only because I really related to that character’s journey personally. For me, only one character really struck me. Workers from all walks of life going about their daily life – work, chores, travel, leisure.
This is what the game is trying to capture with its various tales. Scattered among these dull and gloomy experiences are pivotal but brief moments of joy, peace and clarity. But, The Longest Road on Earth insists that it’s these little things that matter in life. On the surface, then, it doesn’t sound that thrilling of an experience. There’s one point where you’re literally waiting in a queue. You’ll be waiting for your kettle to boil, standing at traffic lights, hanging up laundry and feeding pigeons at a park. It’s all open to interpretation, so you can take out of it whatever you want.Ībove all, it’s a narrative that embraces and celebrates the mundane in life. These are stories about growing up, following your dreams, alienation, depression, lost potential – you name it. These are individuals that are often aimless, alienated and lonely, so, of course, there’s a lovely element of the existential at play. It’s a fragmented sequence of snapshots of the painfully ordinary. It’s a non-linear flash of moments with no dialogue or sound other than the backdrop of the original soundtrack. The Longest Road on Earth tells the story of six anthropomorphic everymen going about their lives in a contemporary – but considerably fuzzier – America. 3) GRAPHICS AND AUDIO – BITTERSWEET MONOCHROME STORY – MEANING IN THE MUNDANE
0 kommentar(er)
