Those who like to explore the world of titles independentand more particularly those our ownthey will certainly not hear in Freud’s Bones a new name: This is a very special adventure created by a single person, Axel Foxwho wants to explore and pay homage to psychoanalysis and its timeless father and pioneer, Sigmund Freud. Although various media have often tried to make us approach, know and understand his genius mind, this is the first time that it is analyzed through an adventure of this type, merging elements of different playful genres with each other, and amalgamating documents, quotes and notions. – public and personal – of the eclectic character. Let’s go and analyze, it is appropriate to say, Freud’s Bones in the review.
Voices in the head
The first thing to say about the game is that we will experience the narrative in a way that is anything but passive. A narrator, through written words, will introduce Freud and his personal situation, which he sees wrapped up in an unprecedented crisis who is putting in serious difficulty there own persona kind of “Dante’s dark forest” to put it simply. This narrator it will be ours at the same time guidewho will take us by the hand and will also show us the basics of the game, in full tutorial style … and us? We put ourselves in the middlelike the central part of a Russian matryoshka: we will cover the role of the Inner Voice by Sigmund Freud, which literally “Will cover his bones” and in one way or another he will interact with him, giving him advice, commenting and above all analyzing it. Our aim will be help Sigmund Freud to find the light, and make return the desire from change the view of the human psyche in a radical way (as it has historically happened).
Our first steps will see us though know the good old doctor a little closer (via a “grim” opening monologue), for to understand even ourselves what it’s made of, and suggesting – sometimes directly, sometimes not – how to interact with him. It is a man with a very particular tempercultured, proud, brilliant, analytical, and with a certain fame that is now on everyone’s lips (so much so that many try to discredit him, even pointing to psychoanalysis as the “New black magic”). We will get in touch and we will have a way to manage its addictions as welli.e. smoking cigars and the cocainehis rivalry with Carl Gustav Jungand clearly all of this will affect his mood. And again, we will also have to act with man, not only with patientsand so his comes into play private life, also mixing it with a good dose of “mystic” that we will let you discover for yourself. In short, that of Axel Fox turns out to be painstaking workthe fruit of a meticulous study that as in a little miracle he managed to fit all these elements into a single work, like the pieces of a puzzle and yet we only scratched the surface.
Yes, because deepening, there will be a lot to discover and consult, from medical notionsto texts, to manage financesand to make sure that “Heart and feather” hang on the right side of the scale.
The right choice
From an inner voice, therefore, it will be up to us to decide how interact with Freud, speaking to him taking into account his possible reactions based on the attitude and content of our response or comment, but underneath there is much, much more. As already mentioned we will have to carry out a real analysis of Freud, trying to understand not only what could happen as a consequence of our choicesbut also what suits him happening around. We will pass by spoken introspective phasesuntil analyze his dreams.
The play structure adopted – and in our opinion also the most suitable for such a title – is that of point and clickhowever enriched from the dozens of features above. It goes without saying that the stages of solving puzzles follows many classic stylistic features of the genre, from Research of words in the text, associationsup to information gathering and to draw up your own deductiona bit like it happens in investigative titles. This, for example, is very much reflected in the analysis phases of the patient and the consequent diagnosiswhere there will not only be the documents to “sing”, but also the patients themselves, with whom we will decide to approach in different ways – through Freud – with the pros and cons of the case.
A huge space within the mechanics of the game, and above all in the very concept of analysis that also affects the reactions of patients, lies in theExin the’the is in the Spuer-I, which are represented figuratively in different ways based on what they symbolize in Freudian philosophy. Without going into details, we will leave the pleasure of discovery to you.
Before concluding the review of Freud’s Bones, I want to point out how not only the game has a purpose entertainingbut also not indifferent personal food for thought: there are many themes that chapter after chapter are addressed, but it is also clear how immediately the concept of “right and wrong”from ethicsfrom action and consequenceare continually mixed and upset, passing the message that there are nuances of everythingand that sometimes the ethically right thing to do is not the thing that would make us feel good.
Finally, we close by talking about the artistic aspect, which not only sees us approaching a well-kept and at times very light graphic sectorbut also with one soundtrack fitting but not invasive, and the use of a Italian at the same time detailed, technicianbut understandable. In fact, we emphasize that all dialogues will be mainly written and not dubbed, with just a few lines or sound effects as a background.
Freud’s Bones, whose review you read today, will be available on Steam starting tomorrow May 25, 2022.
Review
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Freud’s Bones (Tested on PC)
8.5 Total Score
Freud’s Bones is a small miracle, capable of enclosing dozens of concepts and elements of Freud’s life in a single playful work without ever making them seem inappropriate or forced. In fact, it is incredible how these elements manage to amalgamate with each other while maintaining an excellent playful and narrative coherence (which is fundamental to say the least when it comes to characters who really existed, and above all complex ones like Freud). Despite the not exaggerated longevity and the fair amount of lines to read, the game manages to maintain a good pace, and the player’s attention (especially if fascinated by the world of psychoanalysis) will hardly drop.
