De-Exit - Eternal Matters is a joyous game about a difficult subject

1 year 1 month ago

De-Exit - Eternal Matters sells itself as both a game exploring death and "an ode to life". It wants to encourage people to talk about difficult subjects, and I gather it was inspired by the death of a close friend of the developer. I've been playing it for the last week, on and off, and while I haven't finished it, I can at least say this: it's a wonderful game, by turns melancholic and joyous. And it's always surprising.

Oh, and it's voxel-based, too, which is always money in the bank. You play as a skeleton exploring a surreal afterlife in an adventure that combines platforming, puzzling and stealth. Going in without knowing much about the game at all, I was delighted by early levels that really felt like the classic Core Design Tomb Raiders. Something to do with puzzles, perhaps, that involved a lot of blocks and pressure plates, but also the glorious chunky graphics, the muted colours, and that sense of being alone, deep inside a complex space. It's everything I love about those old games.

But De-Exit transforms itself fairly regularly. First, I was given a sort of torch power that allowed me to spot invisible monsters and work my way around their patrol routes for a surprisingly nimble bit of stealth. The next power is a kind of personal whirlwind, which destroys certain objects and can shift others about.

Read more

Author
Christian Donlan

Tags