Welcome To Elk
A beautiful, profound journey through stories
$14.99 From Triple Topping, welcometoelk.com
Needs OS X 10.8 or later, 64–bit processor
Most of us probably don’t think of ourselves as storytellers, but when you consider the accumulated tales we gather over a lifetime — the friends we make and lose, the side-splitting memories, the mundane everyday occurrences — we all have a lot to talk about.
That is what Welcome To Elk sets out to remind us. With its hand-drawn world and captivating music, it’s instantly arresting. You play as Frigg, a newcomer to a Nordic island named Elk. You arrive intent on learning the carpentry trade from a master craftsman, but soon find yourself waylaid by the island’s inhabitants and the stories they tell.
These stories range from the absurdly comedic to the deeply bittersweet to the heart–wrenchingly tragic. Some are about the small struggles in life, while others concern events monumental to their protagonists. Each, though, is grounded in reality, based on actual events that befell real people. After each night you find an account written by the person the event actually happened to, and some stories are interspersed with video interviews with the participants.
You learn these tales by taking an active part in them. Sometimes that means simply observing the conversations and actions going on around you. Other times, there are mini games to play and puzzles to solve. Welcome To Elk is more of an interactive narrative than a traditional game, but that approach works well. Where most games grant you enormous powers to shape the world as you see fit, in Welcome To Elk you’re here to listen.
That’s what makes it so special. By playing a newcomer in a strange land we realize every story is important and has affected the lives of people in ways that we, as outsiders, cannot truly understand. But by listening, we gain an appreciation for what these people have gone through. And we realize the power that lies in stories, in recalling momentous events, and in explaining them to a new audience. Welcome To Elk encourages us to listen to each other — perhaps that’s a message we should carry into the real world.
THE BOTTOM LINE. A game that makes you appreciate the value in everyday lives and the events they contain.