I like to think of myself as a writer. I’ve published one book and have several more on the way. I have short stories, and of course, this entire series, which has ballooned well beyond what I imagined it could be. I write and I write, and in doing so, I tell the story of a world, or just of what it is to engage with the worlds others build.

In all of it, though, I am constantly thinking about structure. The most common structure for telling a story is a wall of text, maybe peppered by images, but flowing sentences and descriptive phrases nonetheless. It’s in ensuring the person engaging with the story is as able to focus on the story being told as possible. The structure is there to support the narrative, and while most narratives don’t need a particularly unique or ornate structure, some benefit greatly from something different. It’s why I wrote my Astrologaster review in iambic pentametre, and it’s why my novels have the structure they do.

It’s also why Before Your Eyes is controlled by blinking. Sometimes, a narrative needs its own structure.

Time ticks on.

Before Your Eyes is a narrative adventure game telling the story of Benny, a newly departed soul on his way to the afterlife. After being fished up by a wolf to be brought before the Gatekeeper, Benny and the wolf review Benny’s life so they can plead his case to the Gatekeeper.

There is very little in the way of actual gameplay in Before Your Eyes. Instead, the player is carried through a narrative, the speed of which is controlled by when they blink. It’s an interesting mechanic, and this feels like one of the few stories in which a mechanic like this could work.

There are also kitties.

By cuing story progression to blinking, the game’s only challenge becomes a physical one. When I wanted to stay in a scene longer, or see how it played out, I had to keep my eyes open. As each scene represents a particular memory, this challenge played nicely with the challenge of memory itself. When recalling our lives, we inevitably lose track of some memories, or wish a moment could have lasted longer. How our brains conceive of our past and who we are is fragmented, cutting some things in favour of others, or lingering too long on those things that never mattered in the first place. I barely remember my wedding day, for example, but I remembered losing a North Carolina trivia contest to Jacob de Witt in 4th grade. This is the fickleness of memory.

Though it may initially seem gimmicky, by setting the pace of a narrative on something involuntary, the game captures some element of what Benny feels when reviewing his own life. There are the moments where you remember to hold on and not blink, and then there are the moments that flash by, probably important, but not imprinted in the brain at the time, and so lost. The mechanic does an incredible job of placing the player in the mind and memory of Benny, of wanting to hold on to something fleeting, but knowing it will slip away.

I sense a metaphor!

This isn’t to say the mechanic is without frustration. The eye tracking sometimes said I blinked when I didn’t, causing me to miss a scene entirely. It was also exceedingly bad at recognising when my eyes were closed. However, the rest of the immersion is good enough that I was happy to peg these issues to Benny and not the mechanics themselves. It was Benny who didn’t remember something that might be considered important in hindsight, not the game refusing to recognise I didn’t blink. It was Benny who didn’t want to close his eyes to hear a conversation, not the game not finding my eyelids. This, to me, is the mark of a story well-told, when I can set aside the issues with the actual mechanics and plausibly chalk them up to story choices.

KITTY

It bears repeating that the story behind Before Your Eyes is a fantastic one. It understands what the purpose of its structure is, and how to use it to tell its story to the fullest. By the end, the experience of being fully locked in to this story had been a deeply emotional one. Its commentary of what life is and how we perceive it is incredible, and I loved it. I held on to these moments of Benny’s life as long as I could, and in doing so, reflected on my own moments. I held on to Benny’s memories, and my own, and gained a greater appreciation for what the story was doing.

Before Your Eyes may seem gimmicky, but I’d argue its blink mechanic is the best possible way to tell its story. Memory is fleeting. Life is fleeting. Capturing that essence through something fundamentally uncontrollable is a brilliant way to capture the essence of life itself.

Developer: Goodbyeworld Games

Genre: Indie, Adventure

Year: 2021

Country: United States

Language: English

Play Time: 1.5 - 2 Hours

Youtube: https://youtu.be/xp6JzDlVvqg