PC Review Code Provided by GoodbyeWorld Games
A lesson that many of us are taught growing up is to enjoy life while it lasts. There has even been a multitude of songs that talk about the past being full of the moments we didn’t cherish enough. Taking in this lesson and giving a new medium to bring it to light is GoodbyeWorld Games. Working with Skybound Games, they got their title Before Your Eyes published on Steam and it is quite an experienced-filled journey, despite having so few controls given. I wasn’t sure just what to expect when I started the story, but I was happy to have gone through it by the end.
Story
After being the lucky soul to be plucked from the afterlife sea, our rescuer and ship captain gives us a brief breakdown of our destination; the big tower in front of us. Before we get there, he needs to know about our life and who we were, and the only way to truly see that is to go through the key moments of our life that made us who we were. See how the decisions you made affected the path you took in life and what that path led you to become. But don’t forget, life isn’t all about the good memories and the truth lies in the darkest corners.
Gameplay
This has to be one of the most simplistic games out there to play because all it requires is the movement of your mouse and the blink of your eye. Given you don’t have a webcam or are unable to provide the proper lighting to get the eye-blinking-collaboration just right, you can always just left-click the mouse instead.
When it comes to interacting with objects in the world, you typically just need to highlight the starting point or highlighted area and then move the mouse accordingly. This happens often as it is the only way to really do anything in each memory of the story, but once you see the bottom icon appear, the memory will skip forward the moment you blink (or left-click the mouse).
There are times when it comes to making choices. This could be done directly by making you move forward in the story by looking at your choice and blinking, but the other option is to have the ability to make the decision or ignore it. This tends to be when you have to look at the icon to interact with it and then blinking to confirm the action, thus making your decision to interact with that option.
Visuals
Since the game is more focused on providing a thorough, decision-based story and keep you focused on what is going on in each memory, I feel the extremely low detail provided is actually pretty fitting. Sure, they could have made it a little bit nicer to look at other characters, but the surroundings and settings were all fitting.
Sounds
Voice acting in this game was definitely a focus when they were making this. Blending that with well-timed and acutely picked musical numbers are key items when it comes to helping a story have the most impact on the player. And seeing how this is a story-based title, it is good that they spent time making the sound effects and voiceovers fit nicely to the various moments in the storyline.
Replayability
With how the ending ends up twisting, I don’t see there is much need for replayability. However, there were a lot of different paths that could have been taken to lead you there and I believe some interesting scenes can be found on each pathway, so if you are curious as to how each life choice could have worked out then it might be worth a second playthrough.
What Could Be Better
As I mentioned before, the graphics could have been a little bit nicer. The low detail initially put me off to this game and I almost didn’t give it any consideration, but the unique “blink to move forward” mechanic caught my attention.
It would have been nice to make it more immersive by adding a full eye tracker mechanic rather than just a blink tracker. This way it would have required me to fully focus on the story and scenery in order to see everything and interact with the choices I wanted to make. Not really a complaint, but an idea on how to move this game mechanic to the next level.
The overall game is pretty short. I know it is just meant to be a story experience with a cool blink mechanic to express the idea of how quickly life passes by, but still.
Conclusion
Before Your Eyes is a reminder of how fast life passes us by. An intriguing experience full of memories that many of us can relate to, given some changes here and there, and gives us the experience of looking back on a life we leave behind. Who would have expected that a game with so few controls would have so much to offer by the end of the story?
