ignite haze obscurity

I'm not sure what I was expecting going into this game, but this has certainly exceeded all of my expectations.

To start, the visuals; a dark, cruel landscape that seems so vast but is truly suffocating once you find yourself exploring more and more. The use of these dull, lifeless colours helps make the orbs and the people (Or, what's left of them) really pop, which gives way to a muted misery as they fade from their final resting place one by one. I'm not sure how to fit this in properly, but I also found myself really enamoured with the way that everything looks from a distance, barely discernable until you take the time to approach and form a clearer picture. It really got me immersed in the story, and gave me an odd sense of nostalgia for games older than myself that my parents introduced me to as a child. Overall, I find myself drawn to each visual choice made, and appreciate the haunting simplicity of the universe.

With the audio aspect of everything, I genuinely found it to be one of the game's strongest points. The unnerving, humming tone mixed with hushed, desperate whispers from the souls around you. The dialogue being read with a warped, otherworldly sort of tone definitely fit right into the environment, and made me feel as if I wasn't talking to a person, but a concept of what that person used to be. One that was slowly fading away, with nothing for me to do but watch and listen. The way everything slowly rises and rises at the climax of the game, and then nothing demonstrates a higher understanding of a bleak, existential horror than most can ever claim to have in their lifetime. The background noises certainly aren't anything special, but that simplicity keeps up with your player's immersion, grounding them in the world in a way they may not want, but will certainly have to deal with anyways. 

The writing is, in no uncertain terms, genius. We only get a small amount of time with each soul, which I worried would make their stories feel impersonal at the beginning, but that was hardly the case. With just a few lines of dialogue, you managed to individualize each and every one of them in a way that had me lingering on their words for a few moments before steeling myself and going on to my next task. With so little time, I could feel the confusion, the desperation, the uncertainty, the franticness, the denial, the acceptance. Their rather brief stories touched me, in a way. Even now, I find some specific quotes lingering with me, but the one that really sticks with me is, "I loved the right way. I hated the right way." Working all your life to be the kind of person who deserves good in the afterlife, only to end up in the same place as everyone else... it's a chilling concept, one that was done perfectly in just a brief minute of knowing the character.

"A hateful ignorance" is definitely the right way to describe the ending monologue. Being talked down to in a way that made me feel like such horrible scum, but nothing at all at the same time, was an incredibly powerful way to finish this experience. And that's honestly what I consider it. Above being just a game, it's an experience, one that makes you ponder just how meaningful everything truly is when the finish line is the same for all of us. We can fill our lives with meaning in the moment, try to convince ourselves that it's all towards something, and that there's purpose in our deaths, but perhaps it all is as meaningless as our actions in this game. No matter what we could've done, it would've had to end like this anyways. And as much as I tend to cringe at nihilism as a concept, especially in the overly pitiful way most people tend to handle it, this manages to confront that concept in a way that I almost agree with, to a degree. Our lives are not done poorly, nor are they done well. They're simply done, and the universe cares not for how you felt about it. It cares not for how badly you may want meaning or purpose. A harsh reality, but one that almost gives me a sense of comfort. Because maybe, at the end, I can find peace in knowing I am satisfied, and nothing else matters but how I saw my life. Maybe we can find peace similarly to the individual who seemed to understand exactly why they were there, and accepted it with open arms. One can only hope.

This was a bit of a ramble, and perhaps I read a lot of the meaning wrong, but I hope it brings you some joy knowing I at least got something out of it, even if it wasn't the intended effect. All in all, I think this game is so beautifully bleak, crafted with love and care and so much effort. I'm looking forward to seeing what else you work on in the future. This was worth every penny.