As we grow older, it’s common for us to long for “the good old days” from our childhood or younger years, but for some of us, those years were not so great – puberty, bullying, neglect, and abuse plagued many of our formative years. If you gave me the option to relive these events, I would probably opt to chew on nails rather than go back in time. Like many kids, depression hit me pretty hard during my teenage years, and speaking from experience, the feeling is much like drowning, as the thoughts and pressure of everything around you builds up, holding you down like an anchor. This makes the title of the new walking simulator Drowning all that more fitting. You step into the shoes of a young boy during his high school years as he deals with depression.

Drowning is much more of an experience than what many would consider a video game, as you’ll spend your time walking through the wilderness along a clear path. The story unfolds at regular intervals as if someone was typing it in real time across the path forward. The narrative is well written, and the statements made all feel relatable, like something I would or could’ve said during rough times. It never feels fake or overly angsty for the sake of it. While predictable, I found the mystery of who or what the character was writing to be too captivating, never letting up, even after the major reveal is made.

The story is broken down by years, focusing on familiar themes that many of us can relate with: moving, parent’s divorce, failed friendships, self-hatred. As I slowly trotted along the path forward, I often found myself becoming disconnected from the game and thinking back on events that I hadn’t revisited in years, awakening feelings of remorse and sadness that felt like a lifetime ago. The good thing is, since the game allows you to proceed at your leisure, there is no pressure to move forward in the event you need to take a break to head down memory lane to deal with your own repressed feelings. When I wasn’t taking time to reflect on my own past, I was pushing forward, hanging on to every word that scrolled across my screen, as if I was an active participant as well as standing on the sidelines cheering our protagonist through his rough times.

The visuals featured are extremely stylized, with low-poly foliage and backdrops making up the bulk of the experience. At first, the visuals have a calming effect with a light musical score, but as you progress deeper into the rabbit hole of depression, the woods become much darker, as if something sinister is just outside of view waiting to attack, resulting in a realistic depiction of how crippling depression can affect one’s mind. Outside of the ambient music the game is completely silent, so you’re going to spend the entirety of your time reading the story – if reading isn’t your thing, you may want to skip this adventure. One of the few issues that stands out is the jarring black screen that comes out of nowhere, followed by some basic texts detailing which year you are in, signaling the end of the chapter and the beginning of the next. I feel like a smoother transition between chapters (maybe showing the seasons changing in a quick cinematic?) would have enhanced the experience from just being good, to ranking with similar titles such as the critically acclaimed Gone Home.

The one major downfall is that this is extremely short, with my playthrough clocking in around 45 minutes, and there isn’t much to see once the credits roll. There are some exploratory based trophies, as well as a few secret endings to seek out for the completionists out there. I will not be retreading the same ground anytime soon for these though – not because the game is bad or I’m lazy, but I would compare this experience to watching Requiem for a Dream. It can be utterly depressing, not just because of the content, but the powerful emotions the story will bring out of you. Often feeling bleak, making you think back to confrontations or mistakes that are so far in your rear view, you almost forgot them: when you found out about your parent’s impending divorce; when you ruined a relationship out of pure self-loathing.

Drowning is a story that I would recommend to anyone who has experienced depression at some point in their life. With the popularity of Netflix’s Thirteen Reasons Why, Sometimes You would be crazy to not approach the school systems to get this into the hands of every teenager on the planet, because the story is one that our youth needs to hear, putting thoughts of depression and suicide in the forefront, never glorifying it and being as genuine as possible.

8 out of 10

Pros

• A Powerful Coming of Age Story
• Thoughtful, Realistic Writing

Cons

• Short on Content and Gameplay
• Transitions Between Chapters are Rough

Drowning was developed by Polygonal Wolf and published by Sometimes You. It is currently available for PC and will release on January 31st, 2019, for NS, PS4, and Vita. The game was provided to us for review on PS4. If you’d like to see more of Drowning, check out the .

Here at GBG we use a rating method that you are more than likely familiar with – a scale of 1 to 10. For clarification, we intend on using the entire scale: 1-4 is something you should probably avoid paying for; 5-7 is something that is worth playing, but probably not at full price; 8-10 is a great title that you can feel confident about buying. If you have any questions or comments about how we rate a game, please let us know.

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