There is something special to be said about indie games. They can present big concepts in often minimalist fashion, and are usually created with great care and passion. Evan’s Remains is no exception. The game is developed by maitan69 and publisher Whitethorn Digital and in it you play as Dysis, a woman searching for the titular Evan on a mysterious island.
The game utilizes a minimalist approach to it’s control scheme: you can run and you can jump. Other than that simplicity, the detail in Evan’s Remains is astounding. I’ve always been a fan of pixel art in games and how it creates an engrossing and captivating world while maintaining a retro, nostalgic feel. The environments in Evan’s Remains are filled with action and life. It is a fantastic example of what pixel art should look like.
Evan’s Remains functions as a traditional platformer. The player is tasked with jumping from surface to surface and using these surfaces to vault over the green pillar at the end of each puzzle. As you play through the puzzles (presented as “monoliths”), the game introduces new mechanics like teleporting and rearranging the locations of platforms. This kept the game thoroughly interesting as I played through the roughly five hour story.
Speaking of story, Evan’s Remains is loaded with it. Almost from the get-go, there is an engrossing and captivating narrative that makes use of every second of that five hours. The characters are developed, the world feels realistic, and the game’s sci-fi elements demand your attention.This narrative is heightened by an amazing soundtrack of synth and ethereal sounds that seemed to compliment the overall aesthetic of the game. This music made the mystery of the island feel all the more tangible and was just a pleasure to listen to as I traversed the monoliths. The story of Evan’s Remains is deep and dense and this makes for an intriguing gaming experience, but particularly in regard to the later elements of the story, the presentation didn’t quite make up for the landing. The story becomes somewhat muddled, but I admire it for pursuing such bold concepts and ideas.
I would be remiss if I didn’t say that I felt as if I had played this game before. It doesn’t tread new ground in the genre, and when it comes to pixel art platformers, it is hard for me not to think of the 2018 title from Matt Makes Games: Celeste. Celeste is a lot like Evan’s Remains. It is a pixel art platformer with big ideas and something to say. It just does so, from my perspective, in a much more effective manner. However, that does not make Evan’s Remains a bad game by any means (games have often mimicked their predecessors), it is just hard not to make that comparison.
Where Evan’s Remains really makes itself stand out is, as I alluded to earlier: the gameplay. Specifically, its simplicity. The story presents some huge ideas, and to foil that and make those ideas more palatable, the gameplay takes a backseat while the story does the real work. Mechanically, Evan’s Remains was easy to learn, and I think this works hugely in the game’s favor. While I would have loved a tad more complexity, the simplicity of the controls and functions left me free to easily absorb the story that was being told.
Ready to play the game and explore a mysterious island? Right now, Evan’s Remains is available on PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch via the eShop, Xbox One, and PC. I played the game on the Nintendo Switch, and I believe that to be the ideal console to experience Evan’s Remains. Playing the game in handheld mode was so satisfying, it feels like this is the way it was meant to be played. This is not to say that when the Switch is docked the gameplay experience is lessened, rather, that it is heightened by playing in handheld mode. I noticed that the art just did not translate as well to a bigger screen and the game in and of itself feels like one you want to experience between your two hands.
Overall, Evan’s Remains was an absolute delight and I think that for five hours of your time, you’ll be thoroughly rewarded for playing the game.
8/10
Check Out the Evan’s Remains Nintendo Switch Video:
For more information, please visit: https://whitethorndigital.com/evans-remains
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I am a writer from Portland,Oregon who has loved gaming since early childhood. Writing and sharing about the best in visual arts is one of my favorite things. Some of my all time favorite games are: The Last of Us, God Of War (2019), Journey, Persona 5, Borderlands 2, and Shadow of the Colossus.
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