Hindsight, a review of a small and condensed story dealing with the theme of grief

Over the years, the world of indie video games has led us to discover candid and personal stories based in whole or in part on the life experiences of people who are part of these small and ambitious creative teams. Describing one’s difficulties, obstacles encountered on the way, and even adversity that other individuals have overcome, whether near or far, allows the player to get very close to the themes and topics covered in these titles and leads to personification of the mind. they stand behind such projects, which are no longer seen as dead human assembly lines but as flesh and blood individuals with their own limitations, problems and goals. Hindsight is a video game that totally falls into this category. Distributed by Annapurna Interactive and the title developed by Joel McDonald wants to touch the player emotionally and describes a theme that sooner or later every person will find their way: mourning.

Let’s see if he can hit the target this time. feedback review.

coping with grief

Hindsight is a video game that focuses solely on storytelling. The protagonist is a woman after the movie. mother’s deathHe has to go back to the house where he grew up. The woman begins to remember her past through the objects she lives in, seeks comfort, but at the same time seeks answers for her mother, with whom she has always had a difficult relationship.

The game is mostly played in a linear fashion and asks the player to solve some of them. perspective games (if we can call them that) literally opens a window into the past. Through these continuous transitions between the present and the past, the narrative continues as an unbroken sequence and guides the player more than this ordinary life, which is characterized by happiness, sadness, loneliness, love and of course loss. The narrator’s voice accompanies us, gently and sadly guiding us into this deep existential well, where there is no way out but to accept the situation he is in and choose to embrace life.

audiovisual simplicity

It is not necessary to propose complex animations or photorealistic graphics to convey the intensity of an emotion. Many video games have shown this to us in the past, and Looking Back is another confirmation of that. through a simple visual styleThe game, which consists of several polygons and an expanding color palette on the elements on the screen in large areas, manages to express everything it should be.

The player is allowed to rotate freely around objects and situations, but will follow a predetermined set of paths to move from one scene to the next. We’re talking about scenes because the whole game unfolds as if immersed in a still diorama, where the only thing that moves is the game room and a few other elements (with rare exceptions, the characters are mostly motionless). This choice is in perfect harmony with the obscure, blurry, opaque memories that come to mind like flashes in the darkness of one’s own memory, as if recalling the stability of the photographic medium.

From a visual point of view, if everything is done to remember the memory theme as if it were an artistic sketch, we find a soundtrack that does it all in the audio one. improve emotions Aroused by the simplicity of the images. The narrator sound sometimes seems to merge with the musical interpretation (not very original but effective), highlighting the rhythm that progresses through the adventure from start to finish (except on a few occasions where you lose a bit). ‘time to search for the next object for interaction). In short, the tech sector does not seem to be randomly chosen from a range of possible styles, but it does seem to have been carefully chosen to deliver its message effectively and quickly (which is no trivial matter).