I played In Requiem on my computer. The game was made by Alberto Carrillo and Anthony Najjar Simon. The story of the game is more of a representation of the poem Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley than a traditional story. The poem talks about the ephemeral nature of humans. The game seems to particularly focus on the idea of Transcience which means something that doesn’t last long.
The target audience is adults who are interested in philosophical ideas and who just have some time to try new and different things. The formal elements are the frozen world you explore, the character that you are controlling, the statues that keep you from freezing, and the overall goal of trying not to freeze to death. The type of fun intended is relaxation fun. In terms of success/failure, the graphics aren’t great but there are a few interesting things in the game such as whales and secret hidden paths.
Each time you open the game, you start at a new place on a frozen world map. If you take too much time to find one of the six spirit statues, you freeze to death. The mechanic of having a time limit before freezing to death ties back the story on transcience. This gives an incentive for the player to walk around and explore the world.
Another thing is that each time you find a statue, a mysterious voice reads a few lines from the Ozymandias poem, as a constant reminder of how the game ties back to it. This game doesn’t tell a story as much as it expresses a feeling and reminds us of the transcience concept. Finding the statues doesn’t add to an overall story, they just keep you from freezing and if you are playing for the first time you hear more and more from the poem.
The overall idea is cool but, to improve the game, I think the graphics could be a lot better. Also, adding some interaction with the animals in the world would be fun. All the animals are put in impossible to reach places.
