Year Walk

 Year Walk

 

Type	Adventure
Single or multiplayer	Singleplayer
Developer	Simogo
Publisher	Simogo
Fun	3/5
Difficulty	4/5

Year Walk - the centuries old tradition of the north, where you go on a walk in order to see the future. You might not be able to achieve clairvoyance with this game, but you should be able to at least learn something.

Year Walk puts you in the shoes of a man walking for a year through the Scandinavian forests, and it is as white as it sounds. The whole game takes place in the woods, with a few minor exceptions, and the whole thing feels like you are in a fairy tale. However, if you know the original fairy tales and their dark origins, you’d know that there are dark secrets behind all the objects seemingly randomly positioned among the trees.

The sound of the footsteps in the snow is something which I remember most fondly from the game, as I find that crunch curiously satisfying. Other things and characters you meet will not talk, but their representations are eerie and creepy. A few of the characters will make you jump and others will make you feel slightly disgusted and disturbed – which is not always a bad thing.

As far as gameplay is concerned, you mostly walk sideways – a bit confusing and strange choice at first, but you get used to it easily enough. You can interact with the objects in the game using the mouse, whether it’s clicking or pulling, and that’s about it. In a story driven game such as this, however, you don’t need a lot more. 

The biggest problem, if it could be called that at all, is that it’s quite short. In a few hours, the story will come to an end, and you will be left with a slightly uneasy feeling in your gut. Another thing that I didn’t like was the map. Even though it is relatively small and completely open from the beginning of the game, a small complaint would be that there is no mini-map. Every time I’m not sure if I’m going in the right direction, I had to pause and open the map to consult it. Thematically though, this works. If you were walking through a snowy forest, you wouldn’t have a mini-map in front of you at all times, would you?

The story is where this game shines for me. Beside the plot line, you also get a sort of encyclopedia describing the tradition of the year walk and the creatures that inhabit the woods and that you find on your journey. It even plays a part in solving one of the puzzles in the game. Honestly, I love folklore from different cultures, and the fact that the information was based on university lectures makes it even better. The ending is also powerful. I will not reveal anything, but I will say I did not expect that.

Overall, make no mistake – Year Walk, albeit a short game, is also a scary one. It managed to make me think about it for a few days after I finished it, and I have a special place in my mind for films and games that do that. So play Year Walk, and go on a spiritual and physical journey to find what your future holds for you.