Every inch of the screen has little touches worth noting. There’s an incredible amount of detail employed throughout that builds a world worth wandering through. There’s depth here if you go looking for it, and a meditative, meandering 3 hours of chill vibes for those who don’t.Īll of this is brought to life via an exclusively black, grey and white pixel art style. They’re of the similar experiences two people can have despite their lives moving at a different pace. They’re of the day dreaming you do on a train or the walk to work. They’re about the everyday, of finding the silver lining, of finally being able to reunite with someone you’ve not seen for a long time, of watching someone mature, of memories you have of a better time. These aren’t tales of grand achievements or overcoming great adversity. The first and last stories particularly struck a chord with me. Without spoiling them any more than I have done, the tales that get portrayed throughout The Longest Road On Earth manages to evoke a number of emotions. While the game play is restrictive (only allowing you to move slowly through each scene and interact with items every so often) so that everyone sees the same story unfold, because the narrative is not dictated to you, each player may come away from it having felt something intimate and personal to them. The relationships between particular characters are left unexplored and you might be left questioning what some interactions mean. Without exposition though, there are times when you’re left to fill in the blanks on your own.
The accompanying music then sets the tone which communicates to the player how the character is feeling. You’ll see events unfold in front of you, most of which are self-explanatory. The Longest Road On Earth does a decent job of portraying what happens to each of these characters via the visuals. It’s a slow start to the game and it maintains this pace throughout. While you’re doing this, you’ll be serenaded by a song, carried by a gorgeous melody and an incredible vocal performance.
Clicking will either trigger an interaction with the environment or briefly switch the view from 2D side-on into a first person one so you can get a better perspective on what the mouse is looking at. As you instruct her to saunter around, an icon will appear above her head. It opens as she’s waking up in her bedroom and you’ll move her through the various activities to get ready for the day ahead. The very first story in The Longest Road On Earth stars a small town mouse. As you move your character slowly through each scene of the game, the music sets a tone and the lyrics give some context to what’s going on.Īllow me to give an example of this. The narrative is instead delivered via the landscape 2D visuals and a beautiful, original soundtrack from one of developers at Brainwash Gang. In fact, almost all of the traditional story telling methods used in video games are absent. There’s no narration here and very little interactivity either. What makes The Longest Road On Earth so unique is the way that these tales are told. Instead, it’s a celebration of the mundane little victories that everyone might experience in their lifetime. None of these tales feature dangers or any threat to the cast. There’s nothing particularly special about each story. Featuring a cast of anthropomorphic animal characters in a world reminiscent of our own, you’ll follow each character through a period of their life. The Longest Road On Earth tells 4 self-contained stories, each of which is centred around slowing down to enjoy the little things in life. It’s akin to a playable music album, which in itself isn’t something new, but rarely is it as beautiful and thoughtful as this. An experimental story telling method comes hand-in-hand with pared down interactivity to create a passive but engrossing experience.
While I sat there, unashamedly getting a little chocked up by the combination of poignant lyrics and powerful visuals, I considered how some people, even on the team here at Finger Guns, would really not have enjoyed it. I’ve not checked but I imagine there are reviews out there that argue whether this game should be considered ‘a game’ at all. The Finger Guns Review.Īs the credits rolled on The Longest Road On Earth, I thought to myself how divisive this game is probably going to be. A meditative and experimental narrative experience, The Longest Road On Earth tells stories without telling them at all.
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