Year Walk
Genres: Puzzle, Horror, Point & Click, Story Rich, Atmospheric, Adventure
Play modes: singleplayer
Release Date: 6-3-2014
Developer: Simogo
Our verdict
8/10
- Difficulty: Medium
- Players: 1
- Playtime: 1–2 h
Year Walk is a short first-person horror adventure from Simogo, set on a winter night in 19th-century Sweden. You go on a year walk, an old folk ritual for seeing the future, through dark woods full of creatures from Swedish myth. You solve cryptic puzzles by looking and listening closely, and a built-in encyclopedia explains the folklore. This PC edition adds new locations, a map, new puzzles and a hint system. It suits solo players who like eerie, artful puzzle games they can finish in one evening.
Only one written review is available here, but the game has over 1,400 Steam reviews and about 91 percent are positive. SteamSpy tags point to Horror, Atmospheric, Surreal and Mythology, and many players also tag it Short. The one available review calls it a fascinating art piece, even if the meaning was hard to follow.
The obvious limit is length: most players finish in an hour or two. The puzzles use sound and odd clues, so they can feel obscure, and the story asks you to dig into the encyclopedia to understand it. At its low price it is worth it for folk-horror fans. Anyone wanting a long puzzle game should look elsewhere.
Pros
- Swedish folk-horror setting with a built-in creature encyclopedia
- Cryptic puzzles that rely on listening as much as looking
- PC edition adds a map, new puzzles and hints
Cons
- Over in about an hour or two
- Story only makes sense if you dig into the encyclopedia
About
In the old days man tried to catch a glimpse of the future in the strangest of ways.
Experience the ancient Swedish phenomena of year walking through a different kind of first person adventure that blurs the line between two and three dimensions, as well as reality and the supernatural.
Venture out into the dark woods where strange creatures roam, on a vision quest set in 19th century Sweden. Solve and decipher cryptic puzzles, listen for clues, and learn about mysterious folklore creatures in the built-in encyclopedia as you seek to foresee your future and find out if your loved one will ever love you back.
Mysteries and clues await everywhere in Year Walk, but to fully understand the events that took place on that cold New Year's Eve, you will have to delve deeper than the adventure and lose yourself between fact and fiction.
This edition of Year Walk features several new additions:
• New locations within the game
• Map
• Updated art
• New puzzles
• Integrated Encyclopedia about the mysterious myths and creatures encountered in the game
• Hint system
• Steam Achievement Puzzles
... and more!
