Die. No matter how hard we try not to think about it in life, we often pass away in video games. And after ? The independent video game Paradise Marsh imagine what awaits us after life: a peaceful pond inhabited by a host of small insects to catch. We hope that the real limbo is just as pleasant, because we liked it a lot.
After a brief introduction, this short first solo game full of sweetness, from Montreal developer Étienne Trudeau, places us in an ethereal pond in the colors of the four seasons. The stars fell from the sky and materialized here in the form of insects and other critters. It’s up to us to catch them in our net to send them back into space and redraw their constellations.
Once back in the firmament, each of the
12 Animals to Catch has its own personality: the monarch butterfly twirls cheerfully, the spider is menacing but friendly, and the tadpole must have a large following on Twitter. It is necessary, to recreate each constellation, to catch three or four of each kind, which is not necessarily easy. Frogs and fireflies are easily scared away.
Scattered in this environment lo fi pixelated, bottles with messages about letting go surface. Owls and swallows speak to us in rhyme — no, master crow does not hold a cheese in his beak. The narration, signed by the game designer Raphael Dely (#000000U101038671077EjDdying, Sunrise), is poetic, sometimes forced, but never corny.
Rocked by the music of Disasterpiece, we got lost for an afternoon in this peaceful world, looking for the last beetle we needed to complete one of the constellations, or discovering the little winks that dotted the environment. Devouring a fly agaric made us fly very, very high. Drink a RedBull, walk fast.
Above all, we have learned to appreciate this slowness, this tranquility that imbues each moment spent in this very brief Paradise Marsh. Yesterday the elections ended. Outside, on this autumn weekend, the cold was returning. Far away, Russia was bombarding kyiv once again.
We can only sing the praises of these little games that we finish in just a few hours and which make us forget, for a moment, the anxiety of reality. We think about this A Short Hike which had knocked us over. At this stray which had won the Internet with its feline protagonist. Or at this JETT: The Far Shore who had made us travel so, so far.
Online, developer Étienne Trudeau claims to have found inspiration for his game in his childhood, in those moments spent catching insects in the wild. We thank him for listening to his instincts: Paradise Marsh is not a masterpiece, but it is unique. And that is the important thing.
Olivier Sylvester