Critical Play: Mysteries
Based on the game “Year Walk”
For my Critical Play, I played “Year Walk”. This was game was developed by Simogo, a Swedish mobile game developer, for iOS devices in 2013. It is rated 12+ and has elements of horror, fear, fantasy violence, and realistic violence.
Narrative
The game revolves around the main character performing the Year Walk, where this act permits the player to see into the future and interact with spirits and supernatural forces. The game begins with the player walking into a windmill to hear a woman tell the player about how she’s been asked for her hand in marriage. This is some commotion with the player becoming enraged, and then the player is asked to leave.
Since Year Walking permits the player to operate in the future, one presumes the player wants to peer into the future to determine whether his relationship with the woman will last. In the “end”, the player winds up in a meadow with the woman laying on the ground. She begins to bleed out and it’s been suggested that the player has stabbed her to death. The character that stabs the woman is executed. The player then has an opportunity to play as another person, that has found out about this forgotten incident, and produce an alternate ending. I did not really understand how this alternate ending really unfolded because I experienced this through a YouTube video since the iOS version did not seem to have the same support as the Steam version.
Mechanics
On the iPhone, the player would use their finger to pan through the screen left and right, and swiping up and down to move from scene to scene.
After about an hour of playing, I called it quits because it became too difficult to progress. On the Steam version, the game appeared much more reasonable. There was a hint button that was not present in the iOS version.
Moreover, the Steam version had a map that guided the player, unlike the iOS version.
These hint and map functionalities helped the player “Year Walk” successfully, in terms of moving around the map, reaching the right puzzles, and interacting with correct supernatural forces.
In turn, the player got a much better experience, in terms of narrative, challenge, and sensation. When mechanics are designed for seamless gameplay, the player can truly enjoy a game’s aesthetics.
