![]() I have crawled through muck, chased after hallucinations and still nothing about the future. Year Walk stands apart from them all.ĭamned woods. The industry's obsession with porting its cash cows over to the mobile ecosystem practically started with Dead Space on iOS while Lone Survivor: The Director's Cut has just begun to haunt Vita owners. Games like the deliciously creepy Dementium: The Ward on DS, a traditional FPS that was a scarier Doom game than some Doom games. Resident Evil and Silent Hill have seen handheld releases before, but there have been some decent efforts recently. ![]() Portable horror games are conspicuously few and far between. Is somebody buried here? A small shape at the top intrigues me, a goat's head. I pass the large rock again it looks like a headstone covered in strange markings. The trees, the trees! Crude carvings, symbols all around me. The game's abstract design and puzzles (if you can even call them puzzles, once again, write everything down) make it hard to play through in one sitting, but the experience is so much better if played through briskly and with as few interruptions as possible. Less cohesive than better-known legends from other cultures, the mythology has not benefitted from generations of adaptation or sanitisation - Rudolph and his red nose are nowhere to be found. The story crafted here, while interesting, is based on very old folklore. You will feel lost, confused and perhaps even angry at certain times. Satisfying the vile wishes of the Backahasten only to have my prize stolen! Again I am denied!Īs you progress, a creeping sense of dread will slowly take hold of you. Your own hand-scribbled notes combined with the journey you take in-game (and out!) create a fantastic synergy. The game can be very obtuse and frustrating at times, but this is no strategy guide. It contains brief snippets of information on lore associated with Arsgang (the Swedish term for the act itself), as well as other phenomena. Add to this a separate free application called Year Walk Companion. Keeping a pen and paper nearby are a must. It does not offer the key freely, I must do its bidding. Here now I find the Backahasten, tempting me with what I seek. The Skogsraet has tricked me, defeated and dejected I wander on and come across the pond once again. Touch controls and working out how to use them in different circumstances will allow you to proceed. You might come across a peculiar looking object or perhaps a change in music, depending on where you're going. Movement is rigid, you navigate the forest and when you come to a dead end, your first thought is to retrace your steps and find another route. I will succeed.įor an early portion of the game you are alone, given no information. My first vision, the beautiful Skogsraet, appears in front of me, then quickly vanishes. I know I must reach the church, but the way is blocked. The sometimes overbearing sense of being lost and hopelessness hits you squarely in the chest, and it is markedly different to the sort of terror a traditional horror game seeks to inflict on the player. ![]() The sound design and music are exceptional. The Year Walk itself begins with you in utter darkness, the only sound, your heavy but relaxed breathing. It is the dead of night, I am prepared and ready. While the story is quiet and requires some digging to unearth it, it is there, and uncovering it will give you an entire new appreciation for the visions and experiences you delve into over the course of the short, but effective, game.Folly they say, fruitless they say, I have heard more warnings than I care to stomach. It would be easy to let interaction drive the gameplay and set story aside, but that's not the case with Year Walk. It's the most basic quest structure there is, and yet the game still feels highly original. ![]() While Year Walk actually started off as a film script, the jump to games makes perfect sense-throughout the game, you progress through a year walk, solve the challenges presented by the beings you encounter, and ultimately reach a resolution. Usually undertaken at liminal times of year-Christmas, solstices, and New Year's Eve-this quest could result in the walker encountering supernatural creatures that would test them and possibly herald disaster or good fortune. To understand the story of Year Walk, the game provides you with a short journal detailing the Swedish tradition of Årsgång, a cultural vision quest in which a person, after fasting and resting in a dark room, undergoes a walk through the forest for a vision of the future. Year Walk's Story Combines Folklore with Gaming for Unique Feel
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