1/6/2024 0 Comments Draugen release dateIt all adds up to a story that is less than the sum of its parts, tragically falling short despite having such incredible ingredients. But she is ultimately a helpmate for Edward-and, by her very nature, forever shackled to him. Meanwhile, Lissie is brilliant: a spinner of many witty lines in delectable '20s slang whose personality is at turns willful and compassionate. Betty is a strangely fridged figure, a dead girl alchemized into something that can’t exist just to give the entire game (defined by Edward’s journey) a reason for existing. But that’s only the start of the thematic issues here: every woman of significance to the story is bent towards either motivating or healing Edward. I won’t lie, there is a big part of me that deeply regretted the fact that Betty, the cosmopolitan flapper Lois Lane, wasn’t even diegetically real. She died as a child Edward’s simply been unable to let go, inventing a whole adult life for her that saw him chase her across the globe. That brings me to the second twist, which attentive readers might have already guessed: Betty isn’t real either. It would have been considerably more powerful and interesting if the game had been honest from the start so that we could be a part of Edward and Lissie’s journey in full consciousness of who they really were. That, of course, neatly reinforces the notion that such people should always be ashamed of themselves. What feels particularly noxious here is the reduction of a lived experience, an identity, to a “twist.” It’s on a par with the way trans identity is rendered such in films like The Crying Game, the semiotics of which always pervert a person into a stunning surprise you’re not meant to tell your friends about. Lissie exists only in Edward’s mind, along with another character-The Entity, a thunderously voiced statue of a feminine angel. As is often the case with ham-handed portrayals that attempt to turn such things into “art,” the lines are vague and inexact. About halfway through the game, it’s revealed that he has an unnamed mental illness that seems to be some blurry combination of schizophrenia and dissociative identity disorder. That’s hardly a sin, of course, but the nature of the spoiler might be.Īfter all, the great spoiler is Edward himself. Careful attention to what is said and how will make certain truths abundantly plain by the end of the game’s first day. I’m on the cusp of spoiling the game but to be quite frank, the game’s biggest spoilers are blazingly obvious in the first few minutes of play. The debt this game owes to Dear Esther is staggering: each features an eloquently sad man wandering in the beautiful desolation of northern solitude in search of a woman-and closure, as it turns out. But in the end Draugen shyly reaches for something well beyond its grasp and its portrayal of mental illness leaves so much to be desired, especially when it is ultimately the fulcrum upon which the whole story is so precariously balanced. It is even moving at points, evoking themes of futility, isolation, and loss with stunning flashes of clarity. Graavik quickly reveals a litany of tragedies stretching back to the turn of the century, and a slow death that began long before Lissie and Edward set foot upon its shores.Īt its best, this is a story that mints beautiful phrases in a heroically gorgeous setting. Together, you must explore this scenic coastal community - nestled amongst the fjords and mountains of rural Norway - in your search for Edward's sister, and unearth the darkness that lies beneath the picturesque surface.Red Thread Games’ anticipated Draugentransports the player to 1923, in the fictional village of Graavik, tucked into a Norwegian fjord, for an adventure to discover “what lies beneath.” Playing as the nebbish (if handsomely voiced) American scholar Edward Harden, you and your “gregarious and enigmatic young ward” Lissie explore the strangely deserted town in search of Edward’s wayward sister Betty, an intrepid and stylish journalist. But you're not alone: at every step of the way, Edward's accompanied by his ward, Lissie a gregarious, independent and enigmatic young woman. You play Edward Charles Harden, an American traveller who's come to Norway to find his missing sister. From the studio that brought you Dreamfall Chapters, and the creative team behind The Longest Journey and The Secret World, comes a first-person psychological mystery set in 1920s Norway.
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