A Pocketful of Stars
Anne Kay   Canada
 
 
Indie gamer extraordinaire.
Currently Offline
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2.7 Hours played
+ Fascinating surreal world
+ Beautiful prose (albeit slightly repetitive)
+ Eerie atmosphere

- Walking is slow, and slows even more if your computer has processing troubles
- Can't save in the middle of a chapter

* Best taken in small doses, a chapter at a time, so you don't get sick of the pacing

There isn't much of a plot to speak of in The Edgelands. You wander here and there, at a walking pace that is at times agonizing, as you follow your cat around the decaying world. Your choices don't affect anything other than the snippet of prose you read, or how you feel about what you've done. (Sometimes there will be a kinder option, or one that feels less sacrilegious.) The puzzles are really just brief tasks you perform in order to advance. There are hints of a greater story―a dreadful dystopian corporation that seems to drive its workers insane, for instance―but in the end you're just a normal resident of the world, and your actions mean very little.

The best comparison, I think, is Patrick Rothfuss's The Slow Regard of Silent Things. There's the sense that some ancient magic is working behind the scenes, and all the objects of the world have come just as alive as the people in it. Trees grow cellphones, food and drink bring on vivid hallucinations, and rituals you cannot quite understand are often the key to clearing your path.

TL;DR: Those who take pleasure in meandering about in compelling worlds, without feeling pressured by gameplay or story, should find The Edgelands a worthwhile experience.
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