Developer Sam Barlow, Half Mermaid
Publisher Half Mermaid
Format Android, iOS, PC, Xbox Series
Stop the film. Something has caught your eye: a new face, a bowl of fruit, a statue of a tiger topped with a wig. You move thematch-cut portal whisks you to another time and place, like magic. The thing is, you never quite know what’s waiting on the other side. That tiger statue, seen in the rehearsals for 1972’s Minsky, might take you to another piece of art in the film itself, or a shot from 1999’s Two Of Everything where a cat walks in front of the camera. The effect is unlike the more directed text search of You have to be willing to give yourself over to it, to be carried in the current, a sensation not unlike playing flâneur in The Lands Between. It’s one of the few thrills that unite our joint games of the year – embracing the element of surprise, and being rewarded for it.
