Dear Mom

[h1]*Dear Mom* - Ein Brief an alle Mütter dieser Welt[/h1] In "Dear Mom" lauschen wir der Erzählung einer jungen Frau. Ihr wird nach dem Tod ihrer Mutter bewusst wird, dass es im Leben kein "Zurück" gibt. So viele Dinge, die sie ihrer Mutter gerne gesagt hätte, es aber nicht getan hat. So viele Dinge, die sie ihrer Mutter einfach so an den Kopf geworfen hatte, ohne es zu wollen. Während wir ihrer Geschichte lauschen, durchstreifen wir die Orte ihrer Kindheit und erfahren dabei kleine Episoden aus Situationen mit ihrer Mutter. Jeder von uns kennt solche Vorkommnisse wahrscheinlich so oder in ähnlicher Form selbst. Ansprüche, Vorhaltungen oder Mahnungen der Mutter, die man oft erst Jahre später richtig deuten kann. So viele verpasste Chancen, um der Mutter zu sagen, was man wirklich fühlt. Böse Worte, die besser ungesagt geblieben wären. Dankbarkeit, die nie zum Ausdruck gebracht wurde. "Dear Mom" ist ein ruhiger Walking Simulator. Der Weg durch die Erinnerungen wird gesäumt von Herzen, die sich einsammeln lassen und Audioschnipsel, die man erhält, wenn man mit Objekten im Haus oder der Umgebung interagiert. Ansprechende Bilder, eine sanfte Erzählstimme und schöne Hintergrundmusik runden das kleine Erlebnis ab. Ob und in welchem Umfang uns die Geschichte berührt, hängt in diesem Falle wohl stark von unserer eigenen Beziehung zu unserer Mutter ab und ob auch wir in Gedanken einen Brief an sie geschrieben haben, der nie mehr gelesen werden kann. ✿ [i]Special thanks to Wyvern-of-the-Rising-Sun for this nice little christmas present![/i] ✿ 👑 Powered by HoI 4 Deu Curators group in German / English 👑 [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/30388691/] Follow Main group [/url]// [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/40282064/]Follow Second group [/url]

This game does not have the quality or length to warrant its cost.

[h1]Introduction[/h1] Dear Mom is a low-budget indie game written as a love letter to mom. While it does communicate its message despite its unpolished nature, it is rough around the edges, as I will discuss. I couldn't recommend it in good conscience unless it reached a lower, more justifiable price of about 1-3 USD through a discount or some other means. A disclaimer: these kinds of games are my jam. I give a lot of leeway to low-budget games, and I love games as art and walking simulators. I think making games should be accessible and the existence of games like this shows that they can be. Successful examples do exist, like The Music Machine, Gravity Bone (and countless others as a result of personal projects or game jams). [h1]Gameplay[/h1] I was expecting a walking simulator (meaning that there wouldn't be much actual "gameplay"), and for the most part I got what I expected. You walk around for a half hour and in certain locations more of the letter to mom is revealed (and voiced over). Some objects in the environment can trigger quotes of advice or chiding from mom. However, there are collectables in this game, and a little counter in the bottom right corner showing how many you've amassed. These definitely don't add anything, and probably detract from the self-paced, story-centered nature of the game. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2402267526 I guess that the developer added them to guide the player through the short level, but I feel like there are better ways to guide a player (sound cues, highlighting key areas, having better level design). It reminds me of the collectibles in The Path, except even those are a little more fun to collect, even if they detract from the overall tone. [h1]Story[/h1] So this is supposed to be the money-maker, here. Ultimately, I think the "love letter" of the game does succeed; I felt something meaningful. However, there are many caveats. For instance, the writing that isn't part of the letter, that you find by interacting with objects, is very generic, to the point of making me wonder whether the developer was writing about a generic mom (e.g. "What do you want for dinner?" "Make your bed!"). The developer does have a concept of their mom outside of "chore-giver" but it's not evident from a sizeable chunk of the writing. This generic-ness goes deeper. There are only very few indications of the culture of the protagonist and their mom. This is an important omission, because culture significantly determines the expectations of the relationships between parents and children. If I were writing a letter to my mom for other people to play, I would contextualize it within the norms of an American White working-class family. The lack of specifics is also not helped by the apparent use of stock assets. For instance, the house is somewhat in disarray, with broken windows and such. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2402266640 I suspect that this is deliberate, but I am not 100% sure. Maybe 90% sure. A dilapidated house is a powerful and appropriate metaphor, but again, I'm only pretty sure that it was intentional. Also, I don't want to spoil anything, but the last 10 seconds or so of the game are very rough and confusing, and again suffered from a lack of specific detail. Given these issues, I am a bit surprised at myself for finding the game meaningful at all, but I won't argue with what I experienced. I suppose there is something valuable about describing a mostly generic relationship between mother and child, even though I think it would have been more effective if it were more specific. [h1]Graphics[/h1] As already mentioned, it seems like there was use of Unity stock assets, although I'm not completely sure (I'm not a game developer). Regardless, there is repetition of assets that give it an unpolished look. But I do think that the final product is still worth looking at. For example, I think the pink sky and general color palette was good. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2402268255 [h1]Audio[/h1] The single audio track, which I estimate looped about 3 times during my play-through, does work. It doesn't get annoying, isn't too short. I suspect that the audio is also stock, but again I'm not 100% sure. The voice-acting in the game is pretty good, if a little over-acted. But it did the job well enough, except for those last 10 seconds. My only real gripe is that the background audio seems to be coming from a specific direction, which doesn't make sense and is a little annoying. I'm not sure why the developer recommended headphones. [h1]Technical Performance & Other[/h1] As might be expected, there were a few glitches. I experienced an occasional hang, but the game did run smoothly overall, so this wasn't a nuisance. A bigger issue: when I was playing through the second time to collect screenshots, I went too quickly and ran into a voice-over trigger before the previous voice-over had finished, and this caused them to play at the same time. So try to avoid that, I guess. The final thing I want to add is that the game is not worth 7$, not in this unpolished state. Similar or more polished games sell for 0$ - 1$. I could justify spending maybe even 3$ on this game. But I think I would feel sour if I had spent 7 USD, as it seems other reviewers do. Wait for it to go on sale or drop in price. [h1]Overall[/h1] This game is rough around the edges, but it has a heartfelt core which might be worth experiencing if the game drops in price. [quote][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/7871885/]Follow our curator page,[b] OCG-Curations[/b], if you like and want to see more reviews like this one.[/url][/quote]

Ein „nie“ abgeschickter Brief an seine Mutter Story: Eine junge Frau dankt in einer Erzählung ihrer verstorbenen Mutter. Nach dem Tod ihrer Mutter wird der jungen Frau bewusst, dass es im Leben leider kein „zurück“ gibt. Viele Dinge die sie ihrer Mutter gesagt oder an den Kopf geworfen hat, die sie nie mehr zurücknehmen kann. Und so viele Dinge die sie ihr noch hätte sagen wollen! Die Vergangenheit erzählt: Wir gehen durch das Elternhaus und erkunden den Ort der Kindheit. Währenddessen werden uns kleine Episoden aus der Vergangenheit mit ihrer Mutter erzählt. Ansprüche und Vorhaltungen, Mahnungen der Mutter, die wir erst Jahre später richtig verstehen. Viele verpasste Chancen der Mutter zu sagen, was man fühlt. Und Dankbarkeit, die nie zum Ausdruck gebracht wurde. Steuerung: Es ist ein Walkingsimulator. Die Steuerung gibt mir keinen Anlass zur Kritik. Ich habe nur mit Maus/Tastatur gespielt, ohne Probleme. Grafik: Dear Mom nutzt die Unity Engine, welche eine schöne Umgebung zaubert. Ich finde z.B. den rosa Himmel schön (ja mag Geschmackssache sein), auch die Blumen und Bäume sehen gut aus. Allerdings kam es an zwei Stellen es zu Tearing und die Grafik hat an mehreren Stellen stark geflimmert und sah ein wenig unscharf aus. Synchronisierung/Sound: Die Erzählerin ist hervorragend, sie erzählt die Geschichte wirklich überzeugend und mit sanfter Stimme. Es wird Englisch gesprochen ohne deutsche Übersetzung, auch keine Untertitel. Die Musik ist gut, dezent, nie aufdringlich und passt gut zum Spiel. Auch wenn ich das Gefühlt hatte, die Musik kommt nur aus einer einzigen Richtung. Meine eigenen Gedanken: Als ich dies schrieb und ich darüber nachdachte, wurde mir schmerzlich bewusst, dass es mir auch so geht. Ja ich, und viele andere sicher auch, habe meiner Mutter viele Dinge gesagt. Böse Wörter, die besser ungesagt geblieben wären, die ich nicht sagen wollte oder sollte. Ich habe diese Dinge in Ärger oder Wut gesagt und werde sie nie mehr zurücknehmen können. Und das macht mich traurig. Aber ich habe noch Zeit und kann meiner Mutter noch viele schöne Sachen sagen. Oder einfach Danke! Fazit: Es ist kein perfektes Spiel, die Grafik ist gut, aber sie hätte besser sein können. Die Erzählung der Story ist stimmig und passt gut zum gewählten Setting. Ob die Geschichte einen berührt, hängt natürlich von jedem persönlich und von der eigenen Beziehung zur Mutter ab. Trotzdem ist es ein gutes Spiel mit einer berührend schönen Geschichte.

A short and very sweet journey through a daughter's message to her Mom. This is a walking simulator with a heart and for anyone who has loved and lost their mother, it will strike a deep emotional chord. Dear Mom takes less than an hour to explore. You wander freely through the environment, clicking objects as you find parts of a letter (audio snippets), memories of Mom, and floating hearts. The Mom memories made me smile, as so many were things that I heard growing up. The game has no save and ends when you reach a final point. For completionists, collected memories appear to be retained across games so the achievement can be earned without touching every single item in a single pass through the game. All components of the letter have to be 'collected' in a single game (start to finish). The art and music are nicely done and there is a deep message - to tell those we love how important they are while we can. And, to not take the people we love for granted because we never know how much time we have been allotted. I recommend this to those who enjoy a journey that is short on length but long on love.

[quote][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/9686972/]Follow "[b]First Person Exploration and Puzzle Games[/b]" for more games like this![/url][/quote] Somewhere buried deep in this game there's a good walking simulator waiting to get out, but this is not it. The game consists of walking around a small park and home, collecting hearts and listening to the narrator talk about her mom. Unfortunately, the story never gets any deeper than "I love you Mom". Additionally, the text is all in broken or unnatural English [i](the voice actor is clearly a native speaker - didn't they say anything?)[/i]. I encountered multiple minor bugs during my playthrough, but nothing game-breaking. There's a severe lack of options. The game ends after literally 10 minutes. There's not really anything substantive worth paying for here. Skip this one.

Okish 15 minutes long adventure walking sim. Though the really slow walking speed sucks. Luckily the game is cheap. Probably not worth if you pay more than 1 buck for it.

This game hit me right in the feels. It's definitely a poetic experience, short sweet and a dedication to mom's everywhere. I'll be calling my mom tonight <3