The Girl Walks Back

The Girl Walks Back is a black-and-white puzzler that looks simple but plays hard. The game starts with a young girl who is led into the forest for an encounter with a local dragon. Determined to survive, she avoids the dragon and begins the walk back home. Your walk consists of surviving multiple scenes that each play out on a single screen. As you survive each scene, a new node appears on your path. The game consists of multiple paths that ultimately map to achievements for eight different endings. While most scenes have two outcomes (survive or die), others have more than one survival option that creates a new fork in the path. Puzzles require assessing the environment and formulating a survival plan for each scenario. Each stop on the path has a fatal outcome. In some cases, survival requires figuring out a numeric clue. In others, it is coming up with a quick avoidance maneuver. The game has a Limbo-like flavor in terms of the expectation that you will die regularly and that death is part of the learning curve. It does not have the graphic violence of Limbo, and the puzzles are much less complex. There are no complicated key combinations for this game and controls are minimal (point and click!). Your progress is automatically saved on exit. Any nodes you have ‘opened’ on the path will be available when you return. You can also replay any scene at any time without jeopardizing your progress beyond that scene. You might do this to determine if another survival option exists and a fork in the path can be created. There are no hints available (a feature that might be quite helpful!). After a couple of hours, I have only completed one full path to a single ending. I have opened several nodes to new paths but am still trying to figure out how to avoid a wolf in various encounters. I like the game, but it is not one that I am apt to plow through in a couple of sittings. Instead, it is a game I am likely to come back to and figure out a few scenes at a time. If you enjoy survival conundrums in small chunks and developing your path, as you go, then The Girl Walks Back is sure to appeal to you. Although you will die often, the game does not feel stressful or rushed. It is a relaxing and thoughtful exercise that I recommend. [quote][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/]Follow [b]IndieGems[/b] if you enjoyed this review and want to see more like it.[/url][/quote]