For the critical play on walking simulators I played A Short Hike. It was made by indie game designer Adam Robinson-Yu (also known as adamgryu). It is single player and is perfect for explorers, achievers, and collectors.
In A Short Hike, you play as Claire, an anthropomorphic bird. You try to climb to the top of Hawk’s Peak because you’re bored and there’s no phone signal at your house. As you explore the map, you find money and golden feathers. Golden feathers are like stamina in the game for running (if you have running shoes), flying, and climbing. Not only that, but you can get a silver feather. Silver feathers enhance the golden feathers abilities (you climb, run, and fly faster)
(You can see Claire in the middle of the screen, and the golden feathers in the bottom left)
Walking tells the story by allowing you to run into more people and learn more about you, your mom, other npcs, and what’s going on in the world. As you’re walking around, you find different people that need your help. These are optional side-quests, but if you do them, you unlock more of the story, and some cool prizes. Some side quests include finding a lost watch, finding a lucky red headband, finding 15 shells, pay for someone’s college tuition, and more. Some of the quests overlap (like how if you pay for the guy’s college tuition he’ll give you the lost watch), but most of them don’t so you can pick and choose if you hate one of the characters and don’t want to help them.
One of the design elements I really like are the bite sized tutorials. Some npcs teach you how to do stuff (running, climbing, gliding, flying, etc.) when you’re about to need it. It is really helpful that it doesn’t give all the information at once and you can go back to them any time you forget or need a reminder.
(This is the tutorial for gliding. They’re making fun of me because I asked them again.)
This also allows the tutorials to blend in with the game, not some random thing before you start.
A Short Hike is a great example of an embedded narrative. It is easy to skip all the npcs, go to the top of the mountain, and quit the game. You just finished the game, so why play more? But by doing that, you skip almost all of the story (you get a little at the peak). Instead if you work your way up slowly, or just keep playing and do the side quests, you’ll learn about the amazing storyline. This is how it, and most other walking sims are designed. If you just care about completing the main objective, you won’t get/understand the story. A Short Hike also uses environmental storytelling to enhance the embedded narrative. The different areas you go on your hike tell different stories. The beach is packed and has an election going on (if you do the sidequest); the graveyard is in perpetual rain, that could be because the sorrow the townsfolk feel about the dead; and the top of the mountain is cold and barren, but the people up there are really nice and feel like family.
I think A Short Hike is a really nice, relaxing game to play. It only took me about an hour to get to the top, even with me running around doing side quests, and I’m currently 3.6 hours in and have 9/12 achievements. I would recommend it to anyone who likes cozy games, embedded narratives, achievement hunting, and cool sights.
(here’s a screenshot of the peak of the mountain)
