KRITIQAL

Signs of the Sojourner highlights the limits of conversation systems

Had Signs of the Sojourner allowed the player to fail without having the door slammed in their face, it would be easier to forgive some of the flatness present in its card system or the brevity of its script. But by framing conversations as games to be won without anticipating how often they’d be lost, huge chunks of the game become sequences of frustrating nonsequiturs.

EssayNathalieMay 13, 2020Signs of the Sojourner, Echodog Games, Narrative, Table-Top, Conversations, Language

Near Death indulges in the captivating myth of the lone survivor

Near Death consistently hits the highs of the best survivalist fiction, so engrossing as to cause me to turn up the heat in my own home out of fear. But it is a story we have heard before.

EssayNathalieApril 13, 2020Near Death, Survival, Orthogonal Games, Narrative