Emily is Away (2015)

Excellent atmosphere and visual and sound design that captures the old FB messaging experience beautifully. I like the typing mechanic, it immerses the player nicely. It’s also fun to click around and take different actions, though it doesn’t seem like you’re punished if you don’t.

This is all about the story and the characters, all of which I feel are written well. My only point of contention is that it felt like the responses of the character you play feel male-coded… Very entertaining and humorous but not responding in ways I always agreed with. Honestly, it doesn’t really matter all that much. It’s a story of growing up, relationships, and how people change, told beautifully.

A light, nostalgic trip down the memory lane for millenials (like me). Emily Is Away's simple concept layout is about you picking chat dialogues in interaction with your eponymous friend, as it all progresses depending on how you see her... A close classmate, a crush, or just a friend?

It's broken down in several short chapters, for each year in timeline spanning from high school to college years and can be finished in up to a half hour. Some details leave traces of what we remember from our past years, like the user avatars or lyrics in profiles. And throughout the conversations, there is something poignant about being so close to your school sweetheart and just one step away from crossing over, only to learn that after all these years, you have been standing in the way of yourself.

It's short, it's free and can be done over a coffee break or two. Extra time can be spent on doing the achievement hunting with dozens of meme culture references dashed in at the start.

Sure, it's short. Sure, it only has one ending. But that's missing the point of Emily is Away. This game is about that feeling. From choosing your profile picture from a variety of icons based on 00s musicians to that Windows 98 themed UI.

This is a nostalgia trip for those who know of MSN Messenger in the 00s. Talking to a friend you hoped would become something more. Playing a kind of chess match with them, keeping your strategy hidden behind the mask of the chat box and revealing only the tiniest of hints in the form of “Emily is typing" or "Emily is deleting."

Growing up in that era, makes being a spectator to this fascinating reading. However, it’s the interactive elements – the music you say you like, the dialogue options you choose, the random keys you press on your keyboard to type out your response – which help evoke your own memories of jealousy, romance, laughter and more while trying to focus on your own homework back in the early 00s. All while MSN Messenger is running in the background and as you secretly hope to hear that sound that, you know who, is now online.

Rating: 8/10

I think this game could have easily have been an 9 because the subject matter hit me hard. The main problem that prevents it from being so is simply that it is too short, which is a weird thing to complain about when it's free. I would have been willing to pay a few bucks for a more extended narrative, because while the writing is fine, there's not quite enough depth.

For example, it was hard to get as invested in the characters as I needed to be to truly fall in love. We need to learn more, see more, have more options to get immersed. I also think that while there's a positive aspect to the writing (more on that in a second), the idea that these people are only talking like once a year is unrealistic when they're so close, at least in my experience.

I, like many others, know what it's like to grow apart from people. I think the game would have been more potent if they talked a bunch, then as time went on they just talked less, and maybe at the end you throw in that they've only talked once in a year. That's why I think costing money with more writing, and choices, would have been fantastic.

In the end though, what is there works. It was still rather sad, despite the criticisms, because it nailed it. Obviously it's in the way it's written, how they talk to each other, but a nice subtle touch is how Emily is talking in lower case letters, like she can't wait to respond to you, and then she becomes more formal at the end. I guess that could just be an aging thing, but a lot of adults still type like children (I do too sometimes), so I don't think that's it.

I do recommend it though quite a bit, especially if you're in age range that this will really hit. I hope the sequel has more depth.

this game stirs up bad memories of high school, but I found it therapeutic. Went into this expecting something like Uplink, some kind of strange GUI/windows XP simulator, but it's not really a sim (despite capturing some great elements such as the very loud fans, windows sounds and cycle clicks of a disk drive) what you get is AIM as a front end for dialogue, which is a clever idea. The dialogue itself is semi-believable, even if the premise of talking to someone once a year with the direction the story goes, not so believable.

That really is a kind of a strange premise. Talk to emily. once a year, and see how things end by college graduation. I didnt realize I was supposed to try and 'date' emily, but that seems to be the idea, because of how the game ends. there are countless jrpg dating sims, but they definitely do not go in the direction this does.

I can never really complain about something is free, but it is unfortunate you can really only do so much, You can never get mad at emily, on replays you will become frustrated at her, and the inability to tell her off and there aren't multiple endings. (This is exceedingly odd, I would think that things really can end differently over a course of so many years) Basically emily will wind up dating someone regardless of how you feel, break it off, complain to you and want to see you, you are of course most likely (well I assume most would) feel bad for her and oblige, down the road she of course winds up with him again, your player character is crushed and unable to express his feelings. I dont quite like this setting of 'talk to her once a year and then get crushed as it doesnt work out.'

In essence what do we learn from this? Well something I learned long ago, long distance relationships are doomed, when things go bad with people it is time to move on and forget things about people who do not matter. Or maybe even better, not give a **** to begin with.... Really, that's what i'm picking up here. Emily is not a bad person per se.

That lesson alone is worth playing the game. Also there are some great easter eggs added in dec 2015 i didnt know about until i loooked it up because i thought 'surely there are better endings' Nope the end is bad. so after this game depresses you, you will feel better logging in with the custom icons and seeing the funny and amusing responses emily gives you. https://steamcommunity.com/app/417860/discussions/... I had to give it a third star simply because the easter eggs were killer.

oh i wanted to run this game in 640 480 or 800 x 600 for retro purposes... dont do it, run it in max res/native mon so the mouse moves/scales right.

Pros:
-- If you are in the sweet-spot age-bracket, this could feel very nostalgic
-- Relatively quick and to-the-point for the story it is telling
-- Lots of little details that are very fitting for the theme

Cons:
-- Could be too short and shallow, if you are expecting too much more
-- Certain choices forced on you may break your immersion and connection to the character
-- One ending that may or may not be satisfactory, based on your expectations

Check out my full review at TheKlotzNet