In college my teacher for the course of “Literature on the Internet” (which was still a weird thing back in 2001) asked us to perform a simple task: find her a definition of literary quality. It should be simple right? You’d think that we’d all eventually hone in on a simple definition that resonated with everyone but, try as we might, we all came up blank. This wasn’t an exercise to trip us up however and it was after half the time in the class was lost to this activity that she revealed to us the answer: Literary quality is defined by how deeply a work makes us reflection upon the human condition. It’s an idea that’s resonated with me ever since and is something that I believe is becoming more critical to those indie games who seek to build an experience around narrative first and mechanics second.
So it follows that games that leverage real world experience in building out their narrative would, by default, have this quality to them. Hindsight, whilst not directly based on any one story from the dev team’s life, draws heavily from them. Combining this with the simple but effective exploration mechanic results in an impactful experience that explores many mature themes.
You are Mary, a first generation Japanese American who by all accounts has had a successful, fulfilling life. You’re about to open your own restaurant after being a successful chef for many years prior. However as you’re making the preparations for the opening day you receive the call that no one wants to recieve: your mother has died. So you return home to the place where you grew up and begin the process of packing up her life, reliving all your childhood memories through the various items that you pack away. This window to the past gives you new perspective of the life you’ve lived, and the one you want to live from now on.
Hindsight leverages the tried and true, low-poly/no-texture, low-animation stylings that we’ve all seen in numerous indie games. There’s a big focus on the use of colour between different scenes, reflecting the mood and emotions of the memory you’re currently exploring. Combine this with the (excellent) full voice acting, subtle use of music and other foley and the resulting experience is on par with other similar interactive novel games I’ve played of late. For a second time developer I have to say I’m impressed with Joel McDonald and the team’s work here, they’re really punching above their weight for a first time team.
Hindsight’s main mechanic is focused exploration where you’ll be locked in on an object which you can then rotate around to both A) explore the scene you’re currently in and B) discover the “window” to the next memory. It’s an intriguing mechanic, one that allows for great use of imagery to convey emotions or thoughts without relying heavily on expositive dialogue, like when you’re looking at a cocoon which then provides a window to an older version of yourself. It’s also very light on the challenge, ensuring that you won’t be stuck on a particular puzzle for too long. I actually didn’t know that this game was also available on iOS until writing this review and, honestly, I can see it being fantastically well adapted to it.
That being said some of the windows can be a little finicky, requiring a lot more precision than you would otherwise expect. It’s nothing that brute forcing out a solution can’t fix, but it can definitely rear its ugly head at the worst times when the game is seeking to strike an emotional chord.
Which is to say that the narrative does hit home on a lot of core themes and the various emotional highs and lows do feel earnt. For some though, just going through the exploration of events without a true overarching narrative, is likely to wear on them if none of the core themes being explored (death, grief, the pressures of being a first generation immigrant, etc.) don’t resonate. Still for me though, as someone who’s had to deal with the loss of a parent, a lot of this rings true. It might not have floored me like other similar narrative first games have done, but I don’t think it had to in order to get its message across.
Hindsight then is a lesson in how to do all things well. The game is wonderfully crafted, leveraging heavily on both direct and indirect storytelling means to build out a much richer narrative experience. The exploration mechanic is novel, even if it’s a little annoying to use for some particular puzzles. The core narrative touches on themes that I think will resonate with many people out there, including those who’ve shared similar grief to that of Mary. For a game I only learned about as it was released Hindsight was a welcome surprise.
Rating: 8.5/10
Hindsight is available on PC, iOS and Nintendo Switch right now for $20.00. Game was played on the PC with a total of 1.8 hours playtime and 90% of the achievements unlocked.
