Mobile Watch: Year Walk

Best known for its rhythmic puzzler, Beat Sneak Bandit, Simogo had a stellar year in 2013 with two rather unique mobile releases.

The first game to arrive from the Swedish indie was Year Walk. Haunting, lonesome, and at some points trippy, it combined Scandinavian folklore with a chilling aesthetic and captivating audio design.

Through the eyes of the game’s silent protagonist you venture out into the wilderness, embarking on your very own year walk. Isolated and vulnerable, you begin a spiritual journey marked by the many creatures and strange entities that inhabit the surrounding forests and snow-swept plains.

Though it can easily be argued that Year Walk is genre agnostic, it does share some traits with adventure games, but is much more pared back and minimalistic. For the most part you will swipe up, down, left, and right to move between frames, each with their own landmarks and interactions. It’s these waypoints such as sheds, caves, lakes etc. that contain objectives or puzzles to solve.

Without them Year Walk would be a twisted exploration sim and even if that were the case, the game would still have its merits. Simogo’s art direction gives the mobile title a collage sort of feel, staining its landscapes with dull greys layered one on top of the other.

Sound design is also worth taking note of. Aside from games which solely rely on audio, I rarely ever plug my headphones in when playing (even on PC and consoles). However it has to be said that in doing so, you can immerse yourself even further with Year Walk. The simple sound of boots trudging through snow when combined with unrelenting winds and other subtle sound clips, creates an ominous, pensive atmosphere.

The only complaint I have with Year Walk highlights my preferences as a gamer. Whether a result of binging on games like Call of Duty or not, I always expect a helping help or some sense of direction in whatever I’m playing. Year Walk offers neither, forcing players to dip into guides, wikis, and forums whenever they get stuck, which was fairly common in my case. Yes, hand-holding and overt tips would break Year Walk’s immersion somewhat but at times so did its absence of guidance.

Still, if you’re looking for something a little out of the norm then Year Walk should be right up your street. Unlike most of the mobile games we play it isn’t well-suited for short bursts but, then again, this highlights how diverse the platform is, offering games which aren’t just Angry Birds and Bejewelled rip-offs.