Image rights fom top: Fellow Traveller, Jesse Makkonen.
Somewhere deep within
The Stillness Of The Wind
is a powerful story about
solitude, sanctuary, and
silence. A whole load of silence. It hangs
over the life of the elderly Talma — the
last left to tend the family farm after
everyone else leaves for the blinking
lights of the big city. They communicate
with her through the letters, strange
ramblings that feel otherwordly to the
slow pace of Talma’s life.
Her life plays out like a stripped back
Stardew Valley. You collect eggs, tend
a vegetable plot, milk goats, make
cheese, rustle up meals, and trade with
Most “psychological horror”
games involve walking down
a dark corridor and waiting
for something undead to
leap out at you from the shadows. This
adventure game, however, is more about
existential angst — seriously existential,
in fact. The main character, Price,
apparently killed himself in the original
Distraint, after becoming disillusioned
with a job that involved making poor
people homeless on behalf of a cruel,
money–grabbing corporation.
So Distraint 2 begins with a surprised
Price finding that he’s still alive, and then
meeting a character called Reason, who
The Stillness Of The Wind
Tranquility, solitude, and sadness
$4.99 From Fellow Traveller, fellowtraveller.games/games
Made for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Needs iOS 9.0 or later
Distraint 2
Striking, disturbing adventure game
$5.99 From Jesse Makkonen, jessemakkonen.com
Made for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch Needs iOS 8 or later
EXCELLENTGREATMilking goats and making cheese can be a full
day’s work.That question is the key to the game, as Price
tries to understand his fate.the vendor that emerges by your fence.
Life is simple, small, and sometimes
frustrating. The game doesn’t give you
any guidance, goals, or any sense of
urgency. Plus, the touchscreen controls
are fudgy at best, with a single tap to
move and interact with items and an
awkward two–finger tap to drop them.
But none of that distracts from its
profound look at the solitude of old age.
It’s clumsiness is part of the confusion of
getting old; the mundanity of a simple,
repetitive life; the frustration of being
slower and less capable of completing all
your chores in a single day than someone
half that of Talma’s age.sends him on a quest to try and make
sense of his life. The mechanics of the
game are fairly conventional, as Price
walks across a landscape of hand—drawn
2D graphics, looking for clues that will
guide him to some understanding of
his predicament. But it’s the striking
audio—visual presentation that makes the
game stand out. The backgrounds and
animated characters look like they
belong in the Edvard Munch painting,
The Scream. The somber graphics are
accompanied by flickering lighting effects
and a jarring, industrial soundtrack.
All this makes the game feel
uncomfortable at times — but that’sIt’s not the best game of all time, but it
might just have the most sincere, if bleak,
take on old age we’ve seen in years. It’ll
stick with you long after you draw the
curtains on Talma’s uncomplicated life.
THE BOTTOM LINE. Deliberately
frustrating, and beautiful in equal
measures. SAM LOVERIDGEintended as a reflection of Price’s,
disturbed, disoriented state of mind. And,
if you can stick with it, there’s a sense of
quiet satisfaction to be gained as you
guide Price to his ultimate fate.
THE BOTTOM LINE. An unusual, and
sometimes disturbing, adventure game
that rewards patience. CLIFF JOSEPHmaclife.comAUG 2019 59Tough testing, trusted ratings