The latest from Valtteri Tavast, A Living Room, is very Kafka-esque and not for the TikTok generation. Making Tetsuo: The Iron Man look like a modern-day representation of those continually connected to their phones and ‘the outside world’, this short point and click is for the curious, connecting the dots between reality and construct.
I bet that’s a bit too serious and fragmented first thing in the morning. That’s when I’m writing this, as coffee might not be quite the creative liberator one had hoped. However, as this has been sitting in my library for a few weeks, it makes sense to write about it now (even if the game hasn’t launched yet).
There’s no deadline or urgency in writing about the games I purchase or want to play in my spare time. That’s because the games are already out, or I want to take my time and enjoy them. With A Living Room, it’s the kind of thing I like to indulge in, even if it can be done in under an hour.
A Living Room Review
Their previous game, Rock ‘n’ Rock Will Never Die, is one of the wittiest point and click games I’ve played and was so far out there that I can’t help but recommend it to others – more so if you’re a point and click fan and enjoy rock music. This, on the other hand, is different.
A Living Room is mental, and I love it.
While there’s a great deal of dark wit once more, the content is on a deeper level – questioning reality, mortality and liberty (that last one is only there for rhythm). Our playground is a purgatory room, naturally within the confines of a living room, as that’s where many of us have our most contemplative thoughts, with some braindead Netflix show framing the background.
Are you dead? How come you can talk to the furniture? Wait a minute… are you on drugs? Have you not watched this? That would stop you, surely. Anyhoo, yes, it’s all very existential as you confide in a couch, affectionally talk with a knife, or witness an apparition of cosmic horror.
When Life Gives You Lemons
The main character is beautifully illustrated, though the signature art style of Rock ‘n’ Rock Will Never Die becomes prevalent in ‘inanimate’ objects and third parties. For non-readers, there are voiceovers throughout – no doubt AI as they have that slight Skynet tinge to them, yet somehow a good deal of personality – the protagonist and the lemon, for example, are excellent. AI art features in a few sequences; anyone using Leonardo will spot those. They worked here, but I prefer Valtteri Tavast’s art style.
Considering A Living Room is short, you’d expect this to be a flyaway experience. On the contrary, the concepts, presentation and hidden achievements encourage experimentation, but more importantly, from my perspective, thought. This game, inspired by the line, ‘A dying man in a living room’ in Elliott Smith’s A Fond Farewell, is very profound (and funny) and entirely up for interpretation.
A Living Room Review Summary
It’s cliche to say, but A Living Room is a no-brainer for point and click fans – especially though with a penchant for the surreal, ambiguity, and a dark sense of humour. It’s short, and you’ll be thinking about it for some time after finishing it unless you’d prefer to watch ‘meaningful’ TikTok videos, in which case – you do you.
