tl;dr: A short, whimsical, bittersweet interactive story with surreal elements, lovingly detailed and narrated without any dialogues. This is one of those cases where much of your enjoyment will depend in your pre-existing expectations of games. It is only mildly interactive and quite linear, and much of the time you are simply watching scenes unfold, yet I personally found some of the interactive moments all the more impactful because of that. As far as I'm concerned the way it manages to utilize the pixels, the colour palette, the music, the sound, the subtlest of animations to create its unspoken narrative is masterful. There are just so many clever design details jam-packed into this tiny story, that a second playthrough actually felt worth the time, despite the fact that there is no new content to experience. Similarly, its narrative can be as complex or simple as you are willing to let it be: It's a story about a boy and a bird but it could also be about how memories are altered by time, about childhood, imagination and dreams, about loneliness and companionship, about belonging, about breaking and healing. But it is also a story within the "To The Moon" universe, with characters and details foreshadowing the next game of the series "Finding Paradise", that you're free to ignore but might be interested in pondering about. Or if you're like me and have had the pleasure of a feathered friend's company, you could just sit, smile and awe at the beautiful attention to detail that brings the minimalistic bird animations to life. But that's probably my rose tinted glasses speaking. There's just so much about "A Bird Story" that genuinely moved me, made me think, smile, laugh and be sad, and it's all wrapped in such a tiny, lovingly wrapped package, that it felt like a perfect game to me. I realise that it will mean different things to different people and that not everyone will love it as much as I do, but maybe this is exactly what makes it great.
