I have found the sublime, and it is in Virginia.

As someone with a dual interest in the choose-your-own adventure genre and the tension between games as a product and an artform, I feel compelled to call out As Dusk Falls in both areas.

The first, and most major, is that As Dusk Falls is not a complete game, and yet by all indications is advertised as one. When in the main menu, it is plainly obvious there are—or were intended to be—3 “books” to the story; the third (but perhaps not even final) is grayed out and not actually playable at any point. The Steam page makes no mention of the story as a work in progress, nor gives any indication that any additional work is in progress. There's even a “One Year On” posting from the developer—now almost 2 years ago—where one might think they would discuss future plans, and yet provide none. I find this incredibly odious, as regardless of their intentions, the main menu implies more is to come, and seems to excuse any narrative deficiencies as being intentionally unfinished, while making no public effort to disclose this or provide timelines.

Even setting that aside, As Dusk Falls is 1) not an interesting story, and 2) not an interesting game. On the first, the best comparison is with that of a network TV drama: overacted dialogue from 10 people, all concealing Big Secrets, who possess an uncanny ability to escalate the absolute worst day of their lives. Which ends on an abrupt cliffhanger, as there is no Book 3. There are ways around having a superficial story, or at least not calling attention to it, but as a game it fails also in this respect. As Dusk Falls is so obsessed with providing choice feedback that the artifice of the whole experience is constantly at the fore. Seemingly every 3 minutes, you are presented with “Crossroads” (!), cleverly adorned with a yellow traffic sign of a fork in the road so there is no confusion on the task you have been assigned. If you wait another 3 minutes, you'll be rewarded with an “Outcome” (!) and its yellow traffic sign to make sure you know your choices had consequences. I'm aware highlighting key decision points is common to the genre, however, this seems to look at the market and bafflingly conclude that more telegraphing was necessary. As Dusk Falls loves to “demonstrate cause and effect,” to borrow Lauren Morton’s cogent description of the pitfall of many Choices Matter games in PC Gamer. That is to say, everything is framed as being consequential and proving that those consequences exist (“just look at how big the tree is!”), without regard as to whether any of it is actually narratively interesting. That this is affixed to a story that did not need any further reminders of being a video game is simply mystifying.

Having collected all this money and awards for something so undeserving, and above all incomplete, I hope they take this Crossroads to make some better choices.

To set your priors: I am a snob. I wish everything were on the level of The Sopranos, which 99% of gaming is not. So I mean it when I say I think the original Life is Strange is sacrosanct, a work of art. I believe it speaks profoundly on the human condition and the drive to be virtuous and true to ourselves. I agree with the community's belief in a canon ending, one which this entry does not substantively contemplate. I agree that as told, the story of Max Caufield and Chloe Price had no need of any epilogue.

And I think Double Exposure is a great game. It made me feel joy that I haven't for the better part of several years. An ironic feeling for a series known for melancholy, but it hits a mood and it hits it well, and that frankly makes me smile like nothing else. Is it an artistic tour de force on the level of the original? No. But for what it lacks in profundity—and sometimes even coherence—is more than made up for in its presentation, a kind of spell that invites you to just... vibe to the soft sadness and uncertainty of life after change, each and every character lost in their own way. All of it wonderfully delivered through on point cinematography, music, and honestly some of the best animation I’ve ever seen.

Sometimes we can’t rightly explain why we were drawn to certain things, only that they provided a small amount of beauty for a little piece of time. And I cannot deny that feeling here, or I would not be the person the original game taught me to be.

Night in the Woods is such a slow burn that you have to squint to see any flames.

And perhaps even that would be giving it too much credit. This game by Infinite Fall is true to its developer’s name: constantly having the appearance of going somewhere and yet never leading anywhere at all. Night in the Woods stakes so much on its story that when it is compromised by poor writing and dull mechanics, the product is little more than a time waster.

A beautiful time waster, granted, but all beauty is ephemeral. This was keenly felt with a 10-hour game having to be broken up into multiple play sessions to stave off boredom. Between the tedium of running around the town and mashing through insipid dialogue, there is little to inspire continued playing. This is as much a shortcoming of the game’s mechanics as it is of its narrative. The movement speed of the main character is not necessarily slow, but it is certainly inadequate given the size of the play area intended for exploration. Once the sights become familiar, there is little enjoyment in having to maintain the pace of a stroll while traversing a fairly static space.

Interaction appears to become more sophisticated in the various mini-games attached to the plot, but all of it is a mirage. The most egregious is predictably the most central: a platforming, find-the-hidden-object puzzle which tests your patience with ramps and floors existing on varying planes. The path to that fourth and final objective is always an obscured jump away, and madness sets in as you run around an obnoxious dream world with a looping band tune. Each of these sequences concludes with a vaguely “spooky” apparition waking the main character from sleep, but the only scary thing here is that somebody thought any of this was compelling. If there is story relevance, it is vague and non-explicit, which does nothing to allay the frustration over repeating the “dream platformer” far too many times. At least when playing poor man’s Guitar Hero with the supporting cast, there is a substantive correlation between gameplay and narrative, even if not very interesting.

The characters mostly manage to avoid blandness, but it is difficult to have much sympathy for them. While sympathy is not required for good character-writing, there is danger in having agitated delinquents at center stage. Life can really suck and take an unjust toll, but the degree to which the protagonist bathes herself in teenage angst—despite being a college dropout—places her in the narrowest corner of relatability. Tragedy needs relatability. This is not a slight to those that identify with the main character, but Night in the Woods appears to make no overtures toward those left spectating. The relatability is assumed, which seems ill-advised when the defining feature of the player-character is societal disdain. There are hints of mental distress, but it is not and cannot be handled delicately in a game so eager to ferry you to the next Lovecraftian dreamscape.

“It looks nice” is the refrain, “real effort went into the art and design.” Depth of story and gameplay must follow. But this is the real tragedy; nothing follows, nothing comes. There is nothing to be done. Perhaps in the game’s conclusion, you might find Vladimir and Estragon, but this reviewer did not get that far.

There is a killer on the loose. You know this because there is a newspaper that says there is a killer on the loose. Please select the newspaper clue to confirm there is a killer on the loose. “Ah!” says the Detective. “I think there may be a killer on the loose.”

Mystery games are hard. Good mysteries are not easy to write, and games generally do not have very good writing. Even clearing that hurdle, mysteries are not easy to make interactive. How do you abstract the science of deduction? It is surely tough, but there must be a better answer than “guess what’s in the teacher’s head!”

It is criminal, one might say, that the depth of this game’s investigative challenge is picking the most relevant image out of 12, or 8, or 6. If you are at all worried about stumbling on these not-so-numerous red herrings, fear not; the kind Detective might suggest you match “obscured photos” with “what would make him move the photos under the folder?” Elementary, in many ways. Apologies if “damaged wall” had been your working theory.

The protagonist is—or becomes (rather melodramatically)—a ghost. Ordinarily, this would make him really cool, however, he had the misfortune of becoming a ghost in Murdered: Soul Suspect. This cruel fate binds him to the consecrations of the ghost world, which forbid walking through the walls of… just about everything. To the point at which one has to wonder if the non-corporeal are just out for a good laugh at our Detective; after all, there is an endless procession of ghost trains running straight through the Salem History Museum, and a miniature obstacle course en route to the local church.

Did you know this game takes place in Salem? You might want to check with Chekhov on that.

While navigating the labyrinths of the shadow realm, the Detective can also collect some shiny objects. Rumor has it that collecting all shiny objects of the same type unlocks disappointing vignettes. It appears someone made the mistake of letting Ubisoft have the game for a few days.

Whenever the Detective makes a break in the case, such as connecting the dots between a church bell and a church, spooky demons cry havoc and start patrolling. They have been driven so mad by the expert sleuthing that they make the rounds in a straight line, over and over again. Lucky for you, they can be freed by sneaking up behind them and conjuring some kind of Kamehameha. Most likely the man in the fedora will be seen, and he will need to frantically jump between tears in the universe to hide from the mean spirits. Then the demons will return to their meditative pacing as they contemplate the mystery of why they are in the game.

After possessing some folks and picking “The Killer” to make them think of “The Killer,” our fair Detective finds “The Killer,” eventually. Unfortunately, The Killer is not very interesting, and if their evil monologue bores you enough to look at your watch, you will return your gaze and find the game over in just 5 hours. Will someone please think of the children here? This is all a bit too fast for the resident gumshoe.

“What will signal the end of the review?” The Detective ponders this with some cigarette smoke. Oh, it would seem “snarky joke” is the only option.