THE LAST CAMPFIRE
A little Journey
After giving us the infinite universe, how liberating it must be for Hello Games to scale down with something more intimate and relaxed, which can be enjoyed in an evening. You play as Ember, a sort of chibi version of the cloaked figure in Journey, who’s lost their way in a mysterious world where many of their fellow embers have either perished or become forlorn and turned to stone.
Fortunately there’s hope for the latter as interacting with forlorn statues whisks you away to puzzle rooms where reaching the end will restore your friends who then wait for you by the campfire. Help enough of them and the way opens up to the next section, though you only need to rescue a few petrified pals to progress. They’re not the only inhabitants of this world as you’ll meet a few other characters like an intimidating bird king or a large pig with an even larger appetite.
The puzzle setups are mostly of the familiar block-pushing and lever-pulling variety, though naturally a few will leave you scratching you head for just a little bit longer. 1 Puzzles are also dotted around the world itself, whether it’s needing to find a key for a locked gate or uncover a route to another forlorn or left-behind note.
Acquiring the lanthorn provides more of a twist as this enchanted instrument can move around more objects, such as a snakey platform beneath your feet or blocks triple your size. It’s this kind of magic that adds to this enchanting little world very much inspired by a bedtime storybook. 2 And if all that doesn’t tap into your inner child, a section featuring slides certainly will. Alan Wen