The phrase “in a blink of an eye” refers to the passage of time, often used when speaking about how time has slipped away from us much too quickly. Before Your Eyes, by developer GoodbyeWorld Games and publisher Skybound Games, is a game that holds that sentiment close in its game design and just about succeeds in producing the same somber and sentimental notes. On the surface, the game distinguishes itself through its unique game mechanics: blinking allows players to interact with objects and skip forward in time. At its core, it is an interactive narrative experience about the wonders and tragedies of dreams, ambitions, and responsibilities as you witness the events of your life pass by at blindly fast speeds.
Gameplay
At its best, Before Your Eyes wonderfully aligns its gameplay mechanics and the narrative elements to create an immersive experience, which engages all the player’s senses. At its worst, these mechanics not only distract from the gameplay, but result in disruption of the plot and storytelling. I was enchanted by moments where the game elegantly places you in the shoes of the protagonist: being prompted to close my eyes to eavesdrop on my parents quietly argue about me in the room over, or being asked to not blink in moments of tension and fear. With those snippets of wonder, there comes an equal number of scenes where the only thought on my mind was “ahhhh my eyes are burning.” This was primarily an issue in the first half of the game where at times blinking causes time to jump forward. In these instances, the mechanic was disrupting the time that should be spent on building character through literally cutting the scene short or through physically distracting the player.
It’s really a tragedy when those tender moments of character building and carefully placed beats of storytelling are undermined by the gameplay mechanics. Along with those issues, the mechanics can feel gimmicky when, for example, the player is prompted to pick up their phone by blinking at it. Despite these blemishes, this was a satisfying sample of what could be an incredible mechanic if better incorporated with traditional ways of controlling the player character. In the end, the blinking controls did become highly endearing to me because it greatly amplified a major theme of the game: “life slips by in a blink of an eye and we take for granted the time that’s been given to us.”
Story
Other themes within the story also struck a chord: the loss of childhoods to responsibility and ambition, broken dreams, but also hope, contentment, and forgiveness. The story follows your life. Your mother is an accountant with broken dreams of being a pianist which she subsequently pushes onto you. Your parents are loving, but your childhood is not without its tragedies and trauma. Within points of the narrative, the player makes choices between fulfilling expectations of your loving mother or living out the carefree childhood every child is meant to have. Although the story was simplistic, its themes are so universal and relatable that you will likely find yourself attached to the story and invested in the life of the protagonist. There’s a sense of nostalgia as the player character interacts with objects and struggles with issues many of us would have likely had witnessed in our own childhoods.
The developer succeeded in writing a solid emotional narrative, but since the game relies almost entirely on the power of its narrative, I was just a tad disappointed. I would love to see future projects with more developed, interesting, and unique characters and a more sophisticated story working in tandem with the mechanics they’ve developed to fully immerse the player within another world.
Conclusion
The game’s colorful visuals, digestible characters, and sentimental story leads the player to somber moments of self reflection if they are willing to give 2-3 hours to play through the story. There is no amazing grandiose plot with twists and turns at every corner, but perhaps that’s what drives the feelings of nostalgia and heart aches within this simple narrative. Anyone can enjoy Before your Eyes as everyone has likely felt such subtle traumas as faced by the player character.
Score: 7.5/10
Check Out the Before Your Eyes Gameplay Trailer:
Before Your Eyes releases April 8, 2021, for Windows PC via Steam. You can wishlist it right now.
Steam Review
I remember when I was a little kid, I watched my dad talk to a cowboy robot in a post-apocalyptic open world game. He kicked me out of his office, stating that the game is inappropriate for children, but I think that’s where my love of western RPGs started. Since then, I’ve grown up playing competitive games, interacting with the community, and exploring immersive worlds. I’m definitely an old soul as my favorite games include all of the old Fallout games, RPGs with classical elements such as Divinity: Original Sin 2, and the all-time great Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines
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