[GAME] Gorogoa (2017)
Gorogoa is an absolutely staggering achievement in interactive storytelling, and I am shocked that not only did I miss this game when it came out, but also did not hear much about it in the years after its release. The thing that impressed me the most about this game is how the puzzles are used to explore connections between ideas and concepts that are logically tenuous, but emotionally coherent.
The shifting of one gorgeous, graphic-novel style panel sends you back (or forwards) 20 years, or launches you into a fairy-tale reimagining of the protagonist's current struggle, or just opens a window into a scene that has perspective similarities to what came before. This exploration of the sea of ideas feels like participating in some sort of digital poetry, and I can't think of any other medium where the feeling this game gave me would be possible.
It also helps that the puzzles are all incredibly clever, and, for the most part, logical. Travelling between concepts, teasing out the story and participating in gameplay are all one and the same, which is a feat that is incredibly difficult to pull off. There is one section towards the end involving railway tracks that felt just a little bit too game-y for my tastes, but it's not long or frustrating enough to put me off my overall impressions of the game. The main issue for a lot of people will be the game's short length, but honestly when every single second of the experience is this meticulously crafted it becomes less of a concern.
The sad part of all of this is that this kind of game is incredibly difficult to produce. Reading about the game's development, it seems that the first demo was published in 2012, and it took another five years to get the game into a state where it could actually be released, with the developer running out funds during the process. When this kind of hardship amounts to 1.5 hours of gameplay, I can imagine that this would seem quite disheartening to any aspiring indie devs. Nonetheless, I am incredibly grateful that Gorogoa actually got released, and announcement of any further work from this designer will have my immediate attention.