After obsessing with Who’s Lila? for an unhealthy period, I sought out a few other titles that were perhaps a little similar. Without raising a budget for my research, a quick click on a recommend type banner and the Missing Calm Bundle was soon in my cart.
The titles in the Missing Calm Bundle are visual novel variants – a genre I’m not particularly fond of, but the stories here are abstract, enigmatic and innovative. They aren’t for the masses, but that’s why they’re appealing. There’s no excuse to be snobby towards mainstream audiences, but because the authors/developers live on the fringes of creativity and experimenting with the medium.
Like Who’s Lila?, these are titles that are difficult to recommend but like with all art, it’s about knowing what you like – regardless if you understand it or not. I’d be pretending if I completely understood all the content, but they evoked a mood, and hence I’m writing about them here. The bundle is super cheap, too.
Monsters of Little Haven
Arguably the most accessible and linear of the bunch, Monsters of Little Haven was initially the weakest of the bundle, in my opinion. While it’s fully voice-acted with the narrator taking command of all the characters, I found myself switching off a little and needed to be in the mood for it.
Like the other titles, it’s a visual novel with limited interaction. There are multiple endings up for grabs if you want to go through them all (not a big ask). The illustrations are excellent – almost like a Disney/Don Bluth animation in black and white with a nice soundtrack accompanying the narrative.
The story focuses on the siblings Kenneth and Esme and takes place on their farm. Esme insists on a monster in the shed and encourages her brother to seek it out. As the player, you get to decide on a few dialogue options along the way, siding with his sister or going against her while navigating around their parents who remain in the house.
Perhaps the first two endings I received weren’t the best as repeated plays were more interesting, but I’m not one for seeking content that makes me melancholy. Monsters of Little Haven borders on that, and, based on my tastes; the story wasn’t one I’d typically embrace. Still, I can be objective enough to say that the stories are well-written and further proof that video games are a serious medium for storytelling. Try watching multiple endings of the same film that isn’t an arthouse one. Good luck with that.
My Name Is You And It’s The Only Unusual Thing In My Life
This is the one with the most endings and is probably the most tongue-in-cheek of them all. It’s still dark, short, and, dare I say – features pretty abrupt, Lovecraftian endings, but it’s easy enough to go through all the possible paths and unlock a unique song for each.
Initially quite confusing, as you are the protagonist and are referred to as You in the text, you’re someone suffering from hypochondria yet battling an incurable disease. The game very much resembles a ‘choose your own adventure’ book, only you can’t place your finger between the pages and therefore have to experience and remember your answers.
It’s probably not designed to be replayed again and again consecutively (unless you’re mad like me), so having to repeat the same text at the beginning is annoying, and you end up tapping away to skip it. The actual endings are… interesting, but I have to say that it’s a bit of a chore to go through. There are chapters in the game, but you often have to exhaust every option until progressing.
The production is excellent, though. This is a text-based narrative, and the only interactions are your dialogue choices. Almost every piece of text is illustrated with a still image and a film grain effect. The English language narrator is excellent, doing all the character voices, including a Mickey Mouse-like kid. But the real highlight is the music tracks that come with the endings. They’re different every time, and all of them were brilliant.
Milk Inside A Bag Of Milk Inside A Bag Of Milk
Mental health awareness is arguably more prominent in gaming than most mediums, and that’s a good thing. Perhaps we gamers ‘get’ the developers who create these relatable worlds, no matter how absurd they may be, as we experience it just as much as anybody.
The dialogue in Milk Inside A Bag Of Milk Inside A Bag Of Milk is a bit like Marmite (or Vegemite) in that you either love it or hate it, get it, or don’t. I neither love Marmite nor hate it and somewhere between. The same applies to this indie from Nikita Kryukov as I got the gist, but didn’t entirely get it, but okay with that as it evoked the right moods.
Conveying that mood in a game review for an audience I know nothing about is probably a bit out of my comfort zone, but let’s say that it was an interesting experience. As with all the titles in the Missing Calm Bundle, Milk Inside A Bag Of Milk Inside A Bag Of Milk is a short-lived visual novel with a minimum of two playthroughs up for grabs if you’re looking for achievements and endless replays if you’re into it/trying to make sense of it.
Once again, the score floats my boat in that it’s a cocktail of inspirational, unsettling, haunting and mesmerising. Another reason why I don’t review music on this site – I don’t know how to articulate it. Suffice to say, it’s great. As for the visuals… not so much. The Steam page is currently ‘overwhelmingly positive’. I’m not sure if the game got exposure from a streamer, or perhaps it’s just well-marketed, but many of the comments refer to the presentation,
For me, it’s a little too abstract, and the experience will worsen the larger your screen resolution. The protagonist asks you to decipher an image in one scene, and I genuinely couldn’t. It makes the Rorshach test look like a kid’s book full of balloons and birthday cakes. But, if you like the style, knock yourself out.
You’ll note that I haven’t talked about the plot in Milk Inside A Bag Of Milk Inside A Bag Of Milk. Best you experience it for yourself, eh? In a nutshell, you have to buy some milk and guide this poor girl through the challenges of interaction and going out into the big wide world and seeing it differently. Is she seeing the world at face value, or is it skewed? That’s subjective. All I know is this was yet another intriguing title, albeit brief, that compliments the bundle and makes it worthwhile.
Lighthouse Keeper
I like my own space and could live a period of isolation with reasonable ease. I’m confident in being alone and with my thoughts. The solitude of prison isn’t the first place I think of that terrifies me when it comes to isolation, but a designated task such as manning a space station, collecting samples in… I don’t know – Antarctica or being confined to a lighthouse.
Like the recent film starring Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson, it comes across as sheer madness. Granted, that really is an extreme example, but it took only a couple of scenes in the Lighthouse Keeper for me to feel on edge and feeling that perhaps I wouldn’t like my own space in these exceptional circumstances.
The calendar is the protagonist’s link to reality. Everything the calendar represents is the truth. If they skip ahead a day or two, does that still leave them in the present? As the voiceover states, he’s more or less late with all his tasks. He seems desperate, but he’s relishing in the seclusion. Don’t send anyone.
Schastye
A walking simulator in a room made of four walls. Aren’t they all? That’s just a quick disclaimer that you won’t find any hidden paths here. You’d be lucky to walk a full metre in this rabbit hutch if a dwelling.
From a first-person perspective, you’ll be able to interact with all three items in the room in the time it takes you to spell Schastye. After listening to the radio, checking out the John Lennon poster, or admiring the Garage Heathen sculpture in the corner, the focal point is the computer in front of you.
Interacting with the machine will bring up a word processor using Windows 95(?) and what appears to be the start of a novel. Pressing any key will fill in the sentences as if by magic, and you’ll witness the thoughts of our protagonist. After a series of cutbacks at work, his family have left, and he’s had to move in with his mother. This is all told through the text as you type away.
It’s neither the ramblings of a madman (or is it?) nor is it a coherent narrative such as a memoir. Instead, it’s a series of thoughts that vary in context – with a mushroom influence – sometimes the mundane, other times these lucid commentaries that make you think, then that monotony of bashing away at the keys breaks the spell.
Before buying the Missing Calm Bundle, I read some of the comments on Steam – mostly complaints about having to tap away at the keyboard and some even using programs to type for you. What’s the point?! You can’t scroll back and forth to previous pages; the only motivation for this is to get a Steam achievement. I can’t relate to that myself as the text is there to be read, but each to their own.
As I do this every day – that is, type excessively, not read through people’s drafts, it’s not remotely a big ask. The only difference is it’s like being in the driving seat of a car, and instead of turning left with your action, the vehicle moves where it likes. The text is a good read, with reference to TM, which I liked, but to be honest, I’d prefer to have flicked through the pages rather than bash one out. Heh.
