Seen (2019)

I've had a good, albeit short, time playing through Seen. It acts as a runner-platformer with a visual storytelling on top. The running theme (excuse the pun) throughout the game is hope and loss of innocence, as your traumatized protagonist is striving to escape the dreary side of life at the end of the path.

The journey can feel daunting for a broken person, which is why motivation also takes precedence throughout the game by featuring collectable hope points (and bad ones) strewn along the way (and real quotes showing up at pivotal moments). The game also has over 200 achievements, a majority based on how many hope points you collect as well as special ones. While that would be enticing for achievement hoarders, I get the idea that this feature plays into the motivational mechanics supporting the game's themes. Parts of the game also allows some free-roaming, breaking away from the focus on running and opening for puzzle-solving as well. The puzzles are fairly easy, with exploration put in mind. There are hidden areas placed between the check points, holding some extra hope points and events that notches up the replay value a fair deal.

The music brings up the emotional telling for the better, playing to the occuring events around the characters throughout the game. I wouldn't mind playing filler puzzles to enjoy the melancholic tunes here.

Even on early access, Seen already feels like a well-built game at its length with a setting similar to Inside and a moody atmosphere applied to a runner/adventure game. I look forward to see the continuation of the story mode, as it sort of ends on a cliffhanger note and the development is slow. It's cheap, short and playable even for the casual side of gamers.