The Longing

It's not just any game that can turn your life upside down. My wife and kids ask me daily to be sure to check in on our lonesome shade. I tell them "It's only been a week, there's still 393 days left!" but they say "But he is so lonely... go check up on him to make sure he's okay" Clearly the game is not for everyone. If you don't enjoy art or memorable experiences, or if you lack even a shred of patience, maybe you should try one of the dime-a-dozen action games instead. But... the Longing? It's a piece of art. It's an experience. A magnum opus maybe. But it's won't give instant gratification ala Call of Duty. There's no hurry. Slow down. Relax. Enjoy. Walk down long, labyrinthine, corridors. Befriend columns and the odd arachnid. Struggle with existential questions. When I think about all the trash games I've bought, this certainly ain't one of 'em.

This is a great game. It requires some patience and reflection, but the payback is just priceless. I also find it philosophically challenging: you can't avoid relating the shade's experience with the human experience. The shade just finds itself in a world it does not know, does not understand and where its goal in life is completely unfathomable. The only thing it knows is that it needs to wait for its time to pass by, finding gratification in meaningless things like decorating its home. As every human, the shade feels desperately lonely and purposeless. However, it still finds ways to live with its condition and look for adventure and hope. If the player is particularly adventurous, the shade will find itself digging into its own loneliness and darkness, in a desperate attempt to try to overcome them. However, as perfectly stated in the game, "each triumph may be a veiled defeat. And for each defeat, there is a hidden triumph, lingering in the dark".

What a perfect game for 2020 - a game about 'waiting patiently' released in March 2020 right when lockdowns had started being imposed on many of us. I hesitated a bit before buying this game because of the '400 days' concept - would I really need to wait a full 400 days in real life as well to finish this game? The good news is you can finish the game in considerably less time than that. I forget exactly how long it took me to play through the game to a satisfying conclusion, but it was somewhere around a month. I often kept the game running in the background and enjoyed keeping the lonely shade company while it explored or relaxed. I hope it enjoyed my company as well.

I also didn't expect this game to be something I'd be interested in. The game is the chill pill of games, but I like it. It makes fun to explore the world and discover all kinds of things. It's refreshing to have a game, that requires patience as skill 8) If I have to wait a month for dripping water to fill a pit, so I can climb the edge of it, great then I'll wait for it. But there are some functions/statistics I'd rather have in the game for more comfort: is there an inventory? I don't have an overview of the stuff I own etc. It's good, that you can "save" locations or points of interest... but it's bad, that I cannot name them in the game. After all I can really recommend this relaxing piece of art :)