Hindsightis a pensive journey through one woman’s past, confronting players with questions about grief, family, and the nature of memories. The minimalist yet poignant art design and simple player interaction are buoyed by an ethereally somber score, all of which come together to tell a beautiful, honest, and heartbreaking tale of loss. In a gaming landscape spoiled with quality indie games likeCult of the Lamb,Hindsightstill manages to carve out its own unique space.
DevelopedBy Team Hindsight and Joel McDonald, maker of meditative mobile gamePrune, and published byAnnapurna Interactive,Hindsightputs players in the shoes of a daughter foundering in the wake of tragedy. Tasked with cleaning out her childhood home, the protagonist happens upon meaningful household objects or knickknacks that become gateways into memory.
Hindsightis astory-driven gamethat makes no pretense about prioritizing anything else but that story. The game is split into chapters, each spent exploring a room in the house and centering around a key moment or aspect of the daughter’s life. The narrative plays out through a series of still scenes, connected by a specific object or collection of objects that, once interacted with, transport the woman to the next tableau, the next memory. Player control is extremely limited, with camera rotation and object interaction (a simple click of the mouse on PC) being the only methods of player agency.
Often, discovering how to access the next memory simply requires the camera shift around the scene to find the object required, or rotate around the item in focus until it reveals a memory on one of its surfaces. But at times more is required, though little challenge is ever presented. In one scene, while exploring a dreamy, submerged university, a shattered clock face must be made whole by dragging the pieces back into place. Once done, players can interact with the mended clock to move into the next tableau.
In another, a window that the childhood version of the daughter is scrubbing must be wiped clean to form the portal. Throughout the game, accessing these portals remains very simple, only a handful presenting a puzzle-like element. Yet simple as they are, each successfully accessed portal provides a small sense of satisfaction, nudging players forward to see the next scene and find the next portal. The simplicity works fornarrative gameslikeHindsight, allowing the story to flow continually and keeping the focus where it should be: the daughter’s emotional journey.
Connecting to a new scene is smooth and immediate. The flow from one memory to another feels natural, often with one object in a scene reminding the daughter of another connected moment. The story seamlessly unfolds and never feels rushed or forced yet manages not to overstay its welcome - for the most part. Finishing within a brisk 3-4 hours, the majority of the scenes felt necessary and important but occasionally strayed into tedium. Though few and far between, these moments stood out and might leave players impatient to move on.
The player has control of the camera, but not much else. For a narrative experience of this style, that feels appropriate. But at times there appears to be little purpose for the camera control. In many of the tableaus, there’s only one object you may interact with. With rotational camera control, players might expect to find small, added details off in a corner, but there’s nothing. No extra points of interaction to reveal more information and very littleenvironmental storytellingaside from the central focus of that particular tableau/memory.
On one hand, this is in keeping with howHindsightexpresses its ideas about the nature of memory. Often people’s faces are left blank or environmental details are limited if they’re not the main focus of the memory, in the way that real-life memories are often unclear. And it certainly keeps the story flowing in one direction. On the other hand, it may have been a missed opportunity to add a little more life into these tableaus and offer players more exploration. The result is that it leaves some scenes feeling a little dull.
Through these scenes, these glimpses into the past, a story unfolds about a daughter, her Japanese-American mother, and the conflict spawned out of their disparate hopes and views.Hindsightwas written byFiraxis Gameswriter and Forbes 30 under 30 member Emma Kidwell, herself an American of Japanese descent. Kidwell’s work specializes in race and identity and her experience is a large part of what makes the story shine.
Fortunately, stories about children of Immigrants to Western cultures have become more prevalent over the past several years.Kim’s ConvenienceandEverything, Everywhere, All at Oncebeing two stand-out examples.Hindsightdeserves its place among these successes but is unique in its approach and tone, presenting a more subtle, tragic and personal story.
Hindsighttells a very small-scale story with very large implications for the characters. It challenges players to think about identity, individuality, familial duty, and the importance of one’s past. Big questions with no clear-cut answers. And yet, the game handles them well, refraining from providing cheap, easy solutions. These are heady topics and players are left to wonder at their implications right along with the daughter.
The fallibility of memory and its morphing nature are also examined. The theme of memory’s transformation over time is addressed right from the opening moments and persists throughout. As the story unfolds, assumptions that the daughter made about her family are put into question. Her understanding of love and its expression are challenged, and stinging regrets are confronted.
The themesHindsightexplores - nature of memory, parental relationships, loss - are woven into its interactivity, sound design, and art design. Herein lies the true accomplishment ofHindsight. No matter its genre, goodsound design in gamesgoes a long way. InHindsight, subtle shifts to the score as players flow between memories nudge players' perspective just enough to lend the next scene a sense of both newness and familiarity. Bright childhood colors contrasting the bleak monotones of the present build emersion and emotional connection. A scene transition, immediately following some traumatic news, requires players to whirl the camera around the daughter, seeing unclear memories fly by, reflecting the disjointed sense of changes happening too quickly, and an unreliable memory when recalling them. Each aspect ofHindsightwas pieced together with intentionality, in service of its central themes and story.
Tacklingtragedy in gamesis important, but doing it well requires empathy, awareness, and a deft hand.Hindsighttakes an important story and makes it relevant and relatable by scaling down its narrative to a quiet, personal level. Hampered only slightly by a few design choices, its masterful blending of art, music, interactivity, and writing make it a subtle triumph and a story well worth being told.
Hindsightis out now on Mac, PC and Switch. Game Rant was provided a PC code for this review.
Hindsight
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What if the physical objects of everyday life, the possessions we hold close, were actual windows to the past? Peer into distant memories and unseen futures in Hindsight.From the creator of Prune, Hindsight is a narrative exploration game spanning the entirety of a woman’s life, from birth to present day, as she tries to make sense of it all. Revisit her childhood home, sort through personal belongings, and step through windows to memories frozen in time.Hindsight asks you to slow down and pay attention to the little things left behind. Piece these things together and shift your viewpoint until you find just the right perspective to pull you deeper into the past.Long forgotten memories and dreams cascade into one another. Linger as long as you wish, but sooner or later you must come back to the present.What will you take with you? And what will you leave behind?
