To that end, offering any choice at all can feel like an empty gesture at times, but the story is so intriguing, any misgivings quickly fade away.Įlle deserves a “Best Video Game Mother” Award With those like choosing whether to lash out at your mother, play hooky with your best friend, or taking up a major career opportunity, the story only diverges shortly before returning to the same path, although you can revisit particular segments through a Chapter Select to see how differently some scenes might play out. Showing what it can be like to relive these memories powerfully conveys how we can easily carry regrets throughout the years, and Before your Eyes encourages us to not let those stop us from living to the fullest.Ĭhoices can be made in this game, but all have little to no impact. For many, it can as if GoodbyeWorld Games has seen into how we look back and even forward into our own lives before putting them on-screen so, for a moment, those same feelings we’ve had through our own journeys are brought back up to the surface. Relating to such universally important elements of one’s life makes the more emotional memories we’re playing through hit hardest. Such a reminder being executed so well is rare in any medium, let alone gaming. Skipping through the years as a highlight reel of interconnected events, an example of Before Your Eyes shining at its brightest is when it casts light on how we start to view our parents as individuals, rather than those who are merely caring for us, making us empathetic to their wellbeing as well as your own. Elle and Richard, though, your in-game mother and father, are the true stars that make Benjamin’s upbringing a delight to watch and connect with, Elle especially.Ī nurturing mother who was once an aspiring composer-turned-accountant, Elle is an example of how child-and-parent relationships can differ so greatly throughout life, most often in a grey area rather than steering into the black or white, like many games unfortunately do. The Ferryman is your gruff and laid back guide to the afterlifeĮxperiencing music for the first time through your toy piano, meeting your family cat, playing a Pokémon rip-off with your best friend, watching your parents enjoy loving banter with one another, or basking in the joys of a successfully built career – you can’t help but be immersed in a life that isn’t even your own. Starting at a young age, your journey through Benjamin’s eyes embodies the highs and lows of instances that can shape the entirety of a person’s life, and the rippling effect their consequences can have throughout the years. With the blinking mechanic, you can control how you interact with the world, skip between scenes, and make crucial choices along with way.Īs the recently departed Benjamin Brynn, you relive the important events of his life, but it’s equally the other elements additional characters, aesthetical nuances, and the game’s ultimate message that makes Before Your Eyes so captivating. You’re tasked with witnessing the protagonist’s most precious memories, seen through his eyes from a first-person perspective. To do that, he must learn more about you by having you relive crucial events of a life once lived. Shortly after death, you’re taken aboard the boat of the Ferryman, a mythical being whose task is to guide souls into the afterlife. Despite its unique selling point acting as a double-edged sword in practice, any frustration that might be felt by the gameplay will remain gripped by the narrative until the credits roll.īefore Your Eyes released on the 8th of April 2021, now available on Steam.ģ) GRAPHICS & AUDIO – BLISS FOR THE SENSES STORY – A SIGHT FOR SORE EYES With clever writing and the clear passion in its design present throughout, GoodbyeWorld Games has managed to present a story that will rock any player to their core. Tracking eye moments, the game focuses on enhancing interaction through the story and the world it’s set in, the goal being innovative storytelling via one’s life flashing before your eyes.īefore Your Eyes mostly achieves its goals. With a unique, blink-based mechanic, it aims to create a novel way to play by utilising a player’s webcam. Six years later, we’ve been presented the full-length version of that original award-winning game – Before Your Eyes. That ethos was what took studio director and founder Will Helwarth and his game, Close Your, to earn the Game Developers Choice award at 2014’s Indiecade, followed by the Student Award at the Independent Game Awards in 2015. GoodbyeWorld Games, an LA-based indie studio, holds unique and unforgettable storytelling at its core.

Before your eyes game story