vestige

Exploration can be a great thing in video games, especially if it’s pleasant enough to help the players have fun and relax at the same time. On the other hand, the worlds in question must be worth exploring, otherwise there’s no real joy in walking across a featureless landscape. Hence, walking simulators have gotten quite popular lately, especially since procedural generation has been somewhat perfected.

vestige is not procedurally generated, but it doesn’t really have any kind of story or missions either, so it’s more of an interactive sandbox that can be explored for as long as you wish. Unfortunately, the map in question is rather small, which makes it difficult to stay excited about the experience for longer than a few minutes. On the other hand, it can be a great way to meditate or put your thoughts in order.

Most of the landscape is occupied by vegetation, which actually resumes to flowers, a bit of grass and the occasional tree. However, there are a couple of stone buildings that look magnificent, especially if you take the time to examine them closer. Unfortunately, they are empty and appear to serve no purpose, so not even that is enough to keep boredom at bay for more than a few minutes.

Since your character’s only ability is to jump, there’s nothing you can do but walk and try to climb on various objects you find lying around, and there aren’t many of them. The lack of a proper story or purpose is actually quite disappointing, because anything would have been better than this. A walking simulator can be relaxing and fun, but not when the map is small and closed off.

As for the graphics, they are certainly decent, especially when it comes to object modeling and the quality of the assets. The peculiar visual style goes great with the architecture of the map, and the shadows are pretty great as well, even if they appear to be static. Hence, it’s certainly a treat for the eyes, which is why it’s such a shame that the illusion shatters so quickly.

In the end, vestige could have been a lot more than it is right now, if only the map was bigger, or there was some kind of purpose to your actions. Unfortunately, this is not the case, so we can only hope that more is coming in the future.