It taught me to enjoy the wonderful moments life brings and not sit back on the sidelines. M ost importantly, it told me to my face just how thankful I should be of every opportunity I get and the time I spend with the people I love, whether it be the moments I am back home with my family or the times I get so drunk with friends that we are all dancing and laughing together at 4 AM. It showed me just how much everything in our existence is balanced on a tightrope and one small storm could cause the whole structure to come collapsing down. It has given me a window into adulthood, how exciting it can be, but also how uncertain it is. At age 21 and as someone who is about to leave their youth behind them, making that full transition into being an adult, Where The Heart Leads is a game that will shape my decisions moving forward in life and resonated with me unlike anything else I have experienced in my life. The entire epilogue of the game, which is lengthy, had me on the verge of tears until I hit the final scene and my tear duct damn broke. A Tale To Tell The Story Of ExistenceĪs I said at the start of this review, no game has put me through the emotions like Where The Heart Leads did. Sure, some of these gameplay sections are a little long in the tooth and I think there may be a few too many scenes overall, but when you look at the whole experience, Armature’s work to blend the narrative and gameplay of Where The Heart Leads is unparalleled. The excellent writing between all the characters also goes a long way to make these choices interesting and the relationships that form worth investing in. It really made me stop and think about how what I have said in the past has affected people, their outcomes, and whether or not the advice I gave was the right advice. They are all thoroughly, thoroughly grey and feel representative of real-life choices we all have to make. These choices are important and affect many, many outcomes and are never black or white. You become Whit because you take over his thoughts, you provide the advice he would give in a number of situations and by extension Whit is you, especially if you play the game making the choices you would in the situations he is presented with, like I did. Part of that is thanks to the game’s reliance on providing advice and making choices that affect both the short-term and long-term in a way far greater than anything Telltale were able to do in their time. It is a game without spectacle but all the more memorable because of it. But for all the talk, none of those games ever really are able to do that and here, Where The Heart Leads does it naturally and effortlessly. So many games boast about how you will feel “connected to your companions”, “develop meaningful relationships”, etc, etc. Armature have been able to accurately translate the process of learning details about people, growing to like someone, or just becoming a friend with someone like Where The Heart Leads does. You learn their personalities, their interests, their hobbies, their crushes, and even their enemies. That work is also bolstered by the gameplay which has you wondering around these various moments of Whit’s life, interacting with everyone who was around at the time and just talking with them. Gameplay And Narrative Harmoniously Intertwined There are dozens and dozens of scenes in the game that do this but in my ten hours with the game, I formed genuine connections with every single member of Whit’s family and friendship circle and was fully invested in their futures. You feel every piece of work Armature has done to translate that feeling in reality into Where The Heart Leads, whether it is through the excellent writing that effectively conveys everyone’s personalities or the emotional and fitting soundtrack that accompanies each scene perfectly. Sege might create more problems than he solves, but at the end of the day he is your brother. On this journey you dip in and out of Whit’s life, seeing him and his family at various points, from young adolescents enjoying their first taste of love to empty nest parents thriving off the free time (and lack of dependents), creating a sustainable life for them well into their retirement years.Īrmature’s way of having you hop into Whit and Rene’s life, his brother Sege’s career opportunities and unique perspective, and catching up with everyone in the town to see where they have been since you last saw them is a stroke of genius, as you build up your connection with them and slowly learn to love every person in their own way one scene after another. On his way back to the surface, he goes on an ethereal journey back through his past, the moments that shaped him, and into his future, the moments that have yet to happen.
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