July 6, 2023 - Day 187 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 206

Game: Drizzlepath: Deja Vu

Platform: Steam
Release Date: May 25, 2018
Library Date: Jun 2, 2022
Unplayed: 398d (1y1m3d)
Playtime: 32m

Drizzlepath: Deja Vu is a walking simulator. There are games that are referred to derisively as "Walking Simulators"; in this case, there's no derision at all.

Drizzlepath: Deja Vu is a pure walking sim.

This makes it somewhat difficult to review as a game; most walking sims have puzzles that need to be solved, or interactive elements to the gameplay.

Drizzlepath: Deja Vu has no gameplay elements at all. You can walk in any direction, or jog, if you prefer. That's all.

There's a lovely ambient soundtrack; occasionally, a honey-voiced English woman speaks some philosophical musings about our journey in life.

It's quite beautiful; the conceit of the story is about a journey to the top of a mountain, and thus you find yourself walking through natural environments filled with butterflies and animals, surrounded by mountains, trees & grass, with occasional ruined buildings; interspersed with oddly juxtaposed Unreal Engine assets that may or may not be part of the underlying story.

There's an option for autowalk, which meant that I could nurse my morning coffee in one hand and control the viewport with the mouse.

It can be strangely meditative; for the first 10-ish minutes of playtime, I was thinking of things to say in this review, but the further I got into the walk, the more I found myself actually focussing on what was happening around me in-game, my mind eventually drifting to deeper thoughts about the nature of gender.

It's unfortunate that I read the description before starting the game, as it begins with "A man embarks..."; within the game you're entirely disembodied, and voiceless. There are no NPCs that verbally interact with you, and the voiceover is by a woman; the male framing is unnecessary.

It lead to an initial sense of discomfort and disconnection; in spite of the disembodiment, I felt forced into the role of a man. My experience of most of my life has been that of a passenger in someone else's male body. His body is mine, but not mine; observing the world, but never quite part of it.

As I continued, and realised that there was nothing physical or gendered within the game, I relaxed into experiencing the game world, instead watching it as a disconnected observer. What started out as a walking sim became a meditation of my own experience of life as a trans woman.

I often struggle to write these reviews, having made a rod for my own back. I usually spend more time writing a review than I spent playing the game in question.

This one was a struggle to stop writing, and to edit down to less than aus.social's 3000 character limit.

All of this for a "walking sim" with no gameplay.

Drizzlepath: Deja Vu is an incredibly subjective:

4: Good

#DrizzlepathDejaVu #WalkingSimulator #MastodonGaming #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay