Sometimes games are used in a way to tell a story that resembles the short films you would expect to see at an independent film festival. This is definitely one of those and leaves you in deep thought as you decipher the meanings behind the artistic decisions made throughout the story.
This short story told in the form of a video game is an expression of the Finnish folklore and culture, pulling from the story of Kalevala, mixed with other myths and tales. Ultimately because of the nature of this form of storytelling, the interpretation is left to the player. The meaning that one person receives may be different than the next and may be different than the creators ever imagined.
For a free game, don’t expect much, it was easy to find ways to glitch myself out of the map, and I had to restart the first time through due to a bug that made it impossible for me to start a sauna unable to progress in the story. The settings are limited and despite playing with a decent rig, the game still got relatively low fps, with what felt like high frame times. The game performance is not the appeal to this game, however, it can feel uncomfortable at times when trying to have smooth movements feel jittery.
This game is very short, If everything works as it should, it’s only about 30-40 minutes of gameplay. However, the way the game uses the artistic stylings to the music is done in a way, that without any real character attachment, you can still have what feels like an emotional attachment to the meaning found in this Finnish folklore.
The trailer for the game really captures the feeling of the game as a whole, very calm, pleasant, with just a touch of mystery. For what appears to be a college project, these developers show some real potential for moving on to some great games in the future.
If you have some spare time, and you are enjoy these short story type of video games, I recommend doing at least one quick play through.
