December Assassination #3 (Backlog)

A weird time. Welcome to Elk is a walking simulator, very focused on narrative and peppered with minigames that don't matter, but are there just to break the flow of the game a little bit and provide some diversity. It's extremely linear, which can be an issue for some people, but I didn't really mind it much.

Visually, it's simplicity is striking and the use of colors to denote interactions is generally well done, and I really like the animations that make the characters look like ragdolls. The soundscape is also really good, with music being mostly ambient but still showing personality while effectively setting the mood, and background sound effects never becoming too grating, generally pretty subdued but functional.

Where the game trips for me is in the narrative / writing. I just beat the game and it's unclear to me if I know what just happened. It walks that fine line between dream sequences, life/afterlife, real stories told by real people vs invented stories told by invented people, etc. It throws a lot on the wall, and I don't think it satisfactorily wraps everything with a bow. While some people might praise the narrative openness as it leaves a lot to interpretation, I don't think this was the intent here - I think here the game just suffered from poor writing, direction, or vision, and it feels unfinished. As other reviewers on Steam mentioned, the ending is just a cop out, and it feels like the game has just took you on a ride it never intended to satisfy you, which makes it a bit … cheap.

It looks cute and cool, but I don't think I'd recommend it after all. In a walking sim, narrative is king and the narrative here simply does not deliver