“There are only 27,375 days in the average lifetime—that's just under 657,000 hours, or 40 million minutes. If we're very lucky, we might even get 2.1 billion seconds, but we don't get to keep all of them. Thanks to the limited, finite memory of our brains, we only get to keep a few choice moments to replay over and over again for the rest of our lives. These, however, are the moments that last forever.”
This is all according to Harriet Manners, Geek Girl, model and all-round philosopher extraordinaire.
As we get older, time feels increasingly erratic. Things that happened a couple of years ago can feel like a lifetime, while the Nineties—my formative years—feel just like they were last week. Getting older has a way of rearranging your mental furniture, and videogame Before Your Eyes, a beautiful, meditative game about this fleeting thing we call life, had had me reflecting on mine.
The game opens in the first person as you’re awakened by an anthropomorphic psychopomp wolf who guides you across a river of souls (Styx possibly). He offers you a chance to revisit your life and so, over the course of about two hours, you live as Benny. He’s a well-loved baby boy who shows early musical talent, lives next door to a cool girl, and has the opportunity to make the choices we often get to make, just by living.
The story is presented through a skewed, sometimes unreliable lens, mirroring the way our own memories are often imperfect and fragmented. This clever narrative design makes the experience deeply relatable, capturing the messy, beautiful, and sometimes misremembered nature of human experience.
As a parent and humanist, I found Before Your Eyes to be a deeply affecting experience. Its themes of love, loss, and the passage of time are handled with such sensitivity that it's likely to evoke a strong emotional response no-matter what your beliefs or faith.
I highly recommend this game to anyone looking for a meaningful and artistic gaming experience, but be prepared for a truly touching, and possibly tear-jerking, journey. It's a game that stays with you, long after the credits roll.