In my Arctico review , I talked about exploration having the potential to be a quietly cathartic experience, and about the usage of video games as a meditative aid. I enjoyed thinking about Arctico in that light, and about the potential games have to be quiet, peaceful experiences.

I feel like Babbdi exists to throw that back into my face.

Or maybe, hopefully, we don’t.

Babbdi is a surreal exploration game. You are trapped in a Soviet-esque village called Babbdi, trying to acquire a train ticket so you can leave. Babbdi is not, however, an ordinary place with ordinary rules for acquiring a train ticket. The player must explore Babbdi and meet its bizarre inhabitants while trying to navigate within a world where nothing makes sense.

This is fine.

One common critique I have of exploration games - and indeed, one critique that I had of Arctico - is that the worlds they ask the player to explore are themselves not necessarily worth exploring. Worlds need something to pull the player forward and encourage them to wonder what lies behind the next ridge, or just through the next door.

Babbdi solves this problem brilliantly. Though its world is not particularly complex, the combination of surrealism, uncanniness, and deeply unsettling architecture make it so that every corner feels like a grand new unknown. No matter how much the player seems to understand the world, it delights in throwing something new and bizarre out at every turn. The player is driven not just by the hope of finding a train ticket, but by the sheer curiosity and slight horror of what they might find along the way.

This is not okay.

Babbdi is a game about navigating the uncanny valley and hanging on the knife edge between is and ought. It asks the player not just to explore Babbdi, but to explore that piece of themselves that dwells in nightmare. It asks the surreal to spring to life, and in doing so, creates a fantastic atmospheric experience. It is incomparable, and in a weird way, it is delightful.

Developer: Lemaitre Bros

Genre: Adventure

Year: 2022

Country: Belgium

Language: Egnilhs

Play Time: 1-2 Hours

Youtube: https://youtu.be/O5zoCKhIhys