It looked slightly better handheld, but the pixels were very muddy and thick. The pixel art style used is not suitable for a large TV. Visually, The Longest Road on Earth is not great. I imagine there are many moments like this that help strike that emotional chord, but you need to be laser-focused to pick them all up. I assume this was from the person they are missing and as they slumped further into the chair, the lyrics “but you’re not here…” shot out, and the music and scene faded. As they slumped back in their chair after a long (and very dull) day, they had received a postcard. In one of the narratives, a character is (I assume) lonely and missing someone who had moved away. Due to the aforementioned music turning into white noise for me, this took away from the intended experience as when I was paying attention, some lyrics hit hard. If it were not for me choosing to play through this with my girlfriend, where we bounced our interpretations of one another, I would have completely zoned out midway through. That way, you get to finish it quicker!Īs already established, this game did not do a great job at holding my attention. I don’t know what I was expecting, but long story short, don’t do this! Just play the game normally. After around four minutes, the track ended, there were five seconds or so of silence, and then the same track began again, but this time, with no lyrics. This was until I refused to cooperate for one scene and remained standing in a kitchen refusing to pick up my coffee to see what would happen…. I was impressed at first that the songs for each scene within The Longest Road on Earth fall perfectly in line with the actions on screen and fade to black as the song ends. You get used to them, it doesn’t demand your attention, and I found comfort in the melody of many tracks – hence it being perfect for when I book-read! Over time, it becomes white noise in the sense that all songs are similar, and once you’ve got through the first 25 minutes or so, all songs merge into one. The music is soothing the majority of the time and calms you. I have since added this to my music library to accompany me on my commute to work whilst I read. One area of the game that I think deserves praise is the soundtrack. This led me to hold the joystick in one direction and spam the A button until an action occurred. Every character walks at the pace of a snail, and I found myself growing impatient, not knowing what or where I’d be interacting with something next. Any of the face buttons can be your select option – which is prompted by a square on-screen to select and an upside-down triangle to hold. You move the character within each chapter with the joystick, only moving left and right. Gameplay-wise there is very little on offer. Still, at the same time, I’m playing a video game! It was dull – as were many other parts. This invoked a feeling of loneliness, especially in this character’s story. There are no actions to do, you cannot get up, and the surroundings have nothing of interest to look at. Your only option is to just sit there and listen to the music playing. For example, early on there is a scene where you are riding the train somewhere, and your character is alone in their booth. Some sections were painfully drawn out and slow. The bulk of the experience includes you doing chores and mundane, everyday activities, which I guess is fitting, as this is how I felt playing the game. If you are not sucked in by the melancholic-yet-soft soundtrack or the actions that are happening on screen, you’ll find it hard to connect at all with what’s going on. It will be nice to compare this review to others to see how the narrative of this game affected us all differently.Įssentially a walking simulator, a lot of the enjoyment of this game is down to the player. The entire experience is open to the player’s interpretation, which is quite interesting. This is done to let the actions and music take centre stage. There are no ways to fail, the ‘levels’ are incredibly linear, and there are no dialogue choices – heck, there isn’t any dialogue at all. Personally, it falls into the category of an experience more than anything else. It can be argued quite easily whether The Longest Road on Earth is even a game.
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