Accepting the Inevitable – That Dragon, Cancer Review

<p>Talking about the loss of a loved one is difficult&comma; especially when first introducing someone to the tragedy&period; You might be tempted to just tell the story and that&&num;8217&semi;s that &&num;8211&semi; who cares if they don&&num;8217&semi;t understand&quest; What is even more of a triumph is being able to not only demonstrate what that loss looks like but also what it <em>feels<&sol;em> like&period; <em>That Dragon&comma; Cancer <&sol;em>is extremely straightforward&comma; but it uses the medium of video games to make the player feel for the loss of someone to cancer&period; More specifically&comma; it takes you into the mind of both a child and its parents as they struggle with the acceptance and loss of a loved one to something completely out of their control&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Written by Ryan and Amy Greene&comma; the game is a narrative experience that takes you from happy days at the park to depression in a hospital room&period; Taking place generally from the perspective of Ryan Greene and occasionally his son&comma; Joel Greene&comma; the story focuses on Joel&&num;8217&semi;s fight with cancer as his parents Ryan and Amy struggle in their own unique ways with what is happening&period; The story takes you to a couple different areas&comma; but all of them have a lingering sadness behind them as the game injects personal&comma; troubling conversations into the mix accompanied by a sorrowful score&period; It is a sad story&comma; and one that will likely have some people stop playing because of how relatable it may feel&comma; but what it offers for putting someone in that position is beneficial to empathy games such as this one&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Ryan gets way more focus as a character than Amy&comma; with Amy often just relegated to voicemail messages left on Ryan&&num;8217&semi;s cellphone&period; She is always at a distance in the game&comma; which fits suitably with how distanced Ryan&&num;8217&semi;s reactions are from Amy&&num;8217&semi;s&period; The two are at odds for the duration of the game as Amy maintains hope for Joel to get better&comma; believing that God will help them&comma; while Ryan struggles to understand how she can have hope and believe that anyone is going to be able to help&period; This type of character dynamic is nothing new&comma; but the game places the player in the shoes of the atheist&sol;agnostic character which is the wiser decision since it is more of a blank slate&period; He also has the only real character arc in the game&&num;8217&semi;s story&period; Amy is a support who very briefly gets to waver in strength&comma; but it is all too brief of a sequence&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;97722" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-97722" style&equals;"width&colon; 1500px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-97722" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;01&sol;04090923&sol;hand&lowbar;prints&period;jpg" alt&equals;"That Dragon&comma; Cancer" width&equals;"1500" height&equals;"844" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-97722" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;That Dragon&comma; Cancer&comma; Numinous Games&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>A lot of the moments when character development happens is very obvious in what it is doing&period; Subtlety is lacking in any moment of the game because it is trying really hard to let you know how it feels like to be a parent of a child with cancer&period; Sometimes these moments are still powerful&comma; but other times it becomes tough because you know what it wants you to feel&period; The voicemail is one such instance that constantly reminds you that you should be sad right now&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s never any comfort in those phone calls&comma; but by only having those voicemails present&comma; the game makes those calls seem contrived in intention&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Those moments are few and far between&comma; though&period; Voicemail is constant&comma; but the scenes which are heavy-handed yet powerful are also just as persistent&period; I found myself in a room filling with water as I jumped from perspective to perspective&comma; dealing with each character&&num;8217&semi;s emotions during a specific moment in Joel&&num;8217&semi;s chemotherapy&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s powerful&comma; but also extremely interesting&period; It is the only time you get the perspective of tertiary characters&comma; but it&&num;8217&semi;s also when you have the most fleshed out character moment for Amy &&num;8211&semi; someone who is often relegated to the role of support character in Ryan&&num;8217&semi;s struggle with acceptance of Joel&&num;8217&semi;s death&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;97723" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-97723" style&equals;"width&colon; 1500px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-97723" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;01&sol;04090907&sol;not&lowbar;good&period;jpg" alt&equals;"That dragon&comma; Cancer" width&equals;"1500" height&equals;"844" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-97723" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;That Dragon&comma; Cancer&comma; Numinous Games&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>This is only one of the few instances where the game is more than just a straight line through the story&period; That specific scene allows for players to go back in time and hear other character&&num;8217&semi;s perspectives during specific parts of the scene&period; Another two components actually involve some minor gameplay&period; Those three moments are extremely powerful&comma; but are also the only three moments that stick out in the roughly 100-minute experience&period; Everything else is a constant that is always moving forward&period; Depression is seeped deep within this game&comma; making it hard not to come out of it having felt something&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The most important thing to take from <em>That Dragon&comma; Cancer <&sol;em>is that it is not a story about their son having cancer&period; If anything&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s a story about a father struggling with cancer&period; And that father co-wrote the game&comma; so who better to tell the story&quest; It does a great job at making you feel for the father&&num;8217&semi;s plight&comma; but <em>That Dragon&comma; Cancer <&sol;em>could used more fleshing out of the character&period; Its use of gameplay elements are sparing and enjoyable&comma; but add to the feeling of heavy-handedness that never relents throughout the duration of the game&period; If you want to know what it feels like to be a father with a son dying of cancer&comma; this is a powerful game that will move you and will probably make you sad that someone ever has to go through such a terrible tragedy&period; As a piece of interactive storytelling&comma; though&comma; it lacks subtlety and depth beyond its father character&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><em><strong>A PC copy of That Dragon&comma; Cancer was provided by Numinous Games for the purpose of this review<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;