You know what I don’t love? Indie games. I’m sorry but I’m a Triple A Type of gamer – Call me all the names you like, but sorry games like Journey and Braid have never sucked me in… So this review is going to play out a little bit weirdly as My Memory of Us is about as indie as it comes.
Starting from the beginning you play as a little girl in what looks like Chicago… Anywho, you start of seeing said girl reading on the subway while PATRICK FUCKING STEWART narrates in the way only he can; I mean Morgan Freeman could have too I guess but whatever – So Professor X tells you that this little hipster on the train likes to read and is on her way to his bookshop, because apparently Amazon doesn’t exist in this universe; when she enters, you learn that yes, this game plays like most other 2D indie titles with a little bit of puzzling to make your way to the attic to find a big ol’ red book… Returning to the owner starts the main story.
Once again narrated by Captain Picard, we enter a dystopian world with 100% robo-nazis and many a chest-high wall to hide behind. You take the role of a pair of young rascals called, and get ready for this, Boy and Girl… Yep it’s that detailed – So each character has different traits with Boy being more sneaky and able to tip-toe around, and Girl having the amazing ability to run. You control with both at a time making them hold hands to move as a pair or take charge of each individually and split them up to overcome some tricky challenges… I say tricky but it’s not really anything you wouldn’t have encountered before – Like the classic elevator trope getting one character to control the lift from above while the other just enjoys the ride. Like I said before this sort of gameplay doesn’t really suit me, but hey at least it provided me a little bit of a challenge at times! The biggest challenge though was mastering the various button inputs needed. I had lost count of the number of times I switched character rather than held the others hand; button mastery shouldn’t be this confusing guys! I swear I had an easier time learning combos in Tekken, and you can ask Salman… I still suck at Tekken.
I think honestly the only part of this experience that really drew me in was the art style (Geddit? Drew? Art? No? Fuck it then) – The entire game is presented in black and white, aside from the key items being striking red to make sure you’re always looking at the right thing – Couple this with the Girl’s jacket being red too, and the Nazi imagery, I was getting a bit of a Schindlers list vibe. This is really odd as the rest of the game plays out fairly innocently with everyone having cute little sim-like voices and having adorable smiles everywhere. This makes things almost a little bit unsettling. I guess that’s what they’re going for but god damn it’s still weird.
So what did I learn during my adventure? I’m still not a fan of indie side scrollers, and My Memory of Us is just another generic entry in this genre which is already pretty saturated with artsy games. If you want to give it a go then maybe you should start with something that has a little more in the way of interesting mechanics like Braid and it’s time travel nonsense, or maybe more more heartfelt story like Valiant Hearts (That shit made me cry… For real. Go play it now); basically there just isn’t a lot new or exciting here, but it looks pretty and yeah there’s plenty of charm there to make things worthwhile.
Maybe this is a great new indie title that’ll take the world by storm, but honestly it’s not doing a lot for me. I’m starting to think I’m not the right guy to be reviewing this sort of title! Or maybe I might the perfect person since I can stay objective? Who really knows or cares; now if you don’t mind I’m going to waste more time on Overwatch! Suck it indie titles.
My Memory of Us gets a: