Artistic Vision – Beyond Eyes Review

<p><em>Beyond Eyes<&sol;em>&comma; developed by Tiger &amp&semi; Squid&comma; tells the story of a ten year old girl Rae and her friendship with Nani&comma; a ginger cat&period; The object of the game is simply to search for Nani who has wandered off into the village&comma; but there is a substantial twist&semi; a firework accident has left Rae completely blind&period;  You cannot see through Rae&&num;8217&semi;s eyes in this game&comma; as the name suggests&period; You see through her mind as it builds an image of the world based on information and guesswork&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>After a brief introduction&comma; you take control of Rae in her front garden and proceed to follow Nani the cat&period;  The rest of the game world is a blank at first and as Rae walks ahead&comma; the world illuminates in colour&semi; it&&num;8217&semi;s similar to the Fog of War mechanic found in many Strategy games like the <em>Civilization<&sol;em> series&period; Everything is illustrated using a watercolour paint effect that looks beautiful yet minimalist as the world around you forms as if it was hand painted in front of your eyes&period; The white background morphs into a washy hue and transforms to vibrant color as it comes closer into proximity&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;89557" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-89557" style&equals;"width&colon; 620px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-89557 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;08&sol;04190708&sol;2015-08-19&lowbar;17-11-54-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"2015-08-19&lowbar;17-11-54" width&equals;"620" height&equals;"349" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-89557" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Beyond Eyes&comma; Tiger &amp&semi; Squid and Team17&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The game pace is purposely slow &&num;8211&semi; really slow in fact &&num;8211&semi; and the gameplay itself consists of merely walking around and interacting with people and objects to solve fairly simple puzzles that hopefully lead to Nani&period; The experience is enhanced in subtle&comma; emotional and artistic ways&comma; to great effect&period; A lot of care and attention is applied to the simple premise that Rae is blind and how that affects her vision of the world&period;  Rae uses touch and sound to aid her journey&period; Distant noises will create a visual clue that appears somewhere off in the empty void as her imagination attempts to fill the in the gaps&period; Upon closer inspection though&comma; things may not be as she imagined them at all as the visual image may change completely into its true form as reality overrules imagination&period; Boxes blocking an alleyway&quest; Look closer and you may find that they are merely a construct of memory from Rae&&num;8217&semi;s last visit&comma; and they will disappear from the world if inspected&period; Rae knows the surroundings&comma; she lives here and can remember how they looked the last time she visited&period; However&comma; things change&comma; and if Rae is not close enough to touch it&comma; mystery surrounds it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Discovering the differences between the imagined world &lpar;painted from memories and audio clues&rpar; and the real world is the true genius of this game&period; The ways in which Rae interprets the world around her using sound&comma; touch&comma; memory and a large dose of imagination are used skillfully to give insight into her fears&comma; hopes and memories&period; You get a sense of her great optimism which can often be tempered with disappointment and her worst fears which are often unfounded&period; A soundtrack of mood music hangs in the background and adapts to the situation&period; The music adds to the immersion without being intrusive&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure style&equals;"width&colon; 1024px" class&equals;"wp-caption alignnone"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;08&sol;04190723&sol;BeyondEyes&lowbar;4&lowbar;gamescom2015-1024x567&period;jpg" alt&equals;"BeyondEyes&lowbar;4&lowbar;gamescom2015" width&equals;"1024" height&equals;"567" &sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Beyond Eyes&comma; Tiger &amp&semi; Squid and Team17&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p><em>Beyond Eyes<&sol;em> takes simplistic gameplay mechanics consisting of walking slowly around&comma; occasionally pressing the interact button&comma; but adds a change of perspective that makes it an enchanting&comma; emotional and thought provoking experience&period; For Rae&comma; the change in perspective transforms a simple&comma; everyday walk around her village into a mission of bravery and a search for truth&period; The game is a selfless journey into mysterious and yet familiar territory&period; It is a journey in which sight can no longer be relied upon&comma; and yet everything can be re-engineered in the mind using all the colour and joy of a child&&num;8217&semi;s imagination&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><b><i>A code was sent by Team17 for the purpose of this review&period;<&sol;i><&sol;b><&sol;p>&NewLine;