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Eternally Us

Something a little different this week in the shape of Eternally Us, a short and surprisingly emotional game dealing with the stages of grief after Amber looses her friend to terminal illness.

So… not a cheery premise for a game, but what makes this game really great is the way that the different scenes portray different stages of the grieving process in style, colour and sound.

The artwork is by Ben Chandler of Wadjet Eye fame (just in case something of the style looked familiar - although this one was a good few years ago) and the game was written and produced by Steve Poulton, who has had a game or two featured here in the AGS freeware Monday slot in the past.

Although the game was made for a MAGS competition it is fully voiced. I can’t remember at this length whether the voices were added later or available in the competition release. The soundtrack is mainly guitar but really sets the scene brilliantly, from the relaxed and happy beginning through the grief and despair etc.

As you might expect from a game like this it is not chock full of puzzles and those that are there are relatively simple, relying a fair bit on timing. Not QTEs or reflex testing, but interacting with the environment at the right time. Strangely the first puzzle, involving feeding some birds, was much more enjoyable for me than it should have been somehow!

All in all this is an odd experience, but odd in a good and emotional way. Not one to get you fired up and provide a lot of laughs but if you’re in one of those inbetween melancholic sort of moods then this is a strangely affecting little game which seems to get inside grief well.

uh, i played this… i was stunned by the fact it had very nice voice acting.. gameplaying on the causal side .. we need more romance ags like it.