Year Walk

You have to ask yourself: can folklore and a nice atmosphere alone carry a game for you? If the answer is “Yes!”, then this game might be for you. Because Year Walk lives almost entirely off its folklore. It lives off giving you a small glimpse into Sweden’s mythological creatures, teaching you a bit about the Årsgång and letting you experience a pseudo-folkloristic story. For me, that simply wasn’t enough, and it left me with a feeling of emptiness. That said, the puzzles are fairly simple (as long as you’re not tone-deaf). The game does a good job of conveying the loneliness of an Årsgång, and it genuinely feels unsettling at times. There is a framing narrative, but it’s neither particularly interesting nor emotional. And one thing I’m definitely not convinced by is the idea that it’s good storytelling to structure a game in a way where newspaper articles at the very end have to explain to the player what the actual plot even was.

I already played the game in 2014 on an Ipad. It was also released on Steam. A nice little mthyical and eerie experience into a norse ritual and legend. Eerie but not scary or gory. I can recommend it with best will. It will keep you entertained for around 4 hours. And i recommend having a piece of paper and a pencil ready because you want to write down patterns and other discoveries you will find on your walk.