A game about friendship under the most extreme circumstances.
HQ
HQ
Ever since we first laid eyes on Juggler Games’ My Memory of Us it demanded our attention, as it’s simplistic yet powerful, with beautiful music and varied puzzles. Does the full game live up to our early impressions? The time has come to find out.
The game starts out in modern times as we make our way from the subway to the library, but soon after we’re transported to a pre-war setting. This is because of the old photography which falls from the book, and the librarian begins to tell a story about a couple of young friends who got to know each other as the war caught up with them. War doesn’t make exceptions for children, as you know.
The lovable old man in a red cap tells a story that our grandparents could have experienced, and we play his story with two nameless characters, a boy and a girl. We experience everyday moments just before the war, like eating family dinners with the girl’s grandfather, singing and dancing in a pub, and even helping people with small but very important matters (like delivering wine). Life goes on with its rhythm, but something is hanging in the air. The carefree times of youth are interrupted by the sharp sound of sirens, and the sky is covered with airplanes.
We run away to the shelter, to reach the surface of a completely different world from the one we know. Streets are filled with robot soldiers, on the faces of passers-by terror and sadness are painted, and buildings are torn down by bombs. Can it get worse?
The game is kept in a monochromatic range of black, white, and gray, and the only other colour is red. In My Memory of Us, red is a distinctive feature that from the beginning of the game shows us interactive elements and helps to find a solution. It also serves to single out the citizens of the “inferior kind”, which we discover as our friend is subjected to the process of colouring. “Reds” are the object of mockery, people scoff at them, and soldiers forbid access to some zones.
Sounds familiar? Although words such as “Jews” or “Germans” aren’t uttered even once, the connotations are obvious. Instead of real soldiers, Juggler Games used robots to emphasise the soullessness and inhumanity of the occupiers, to mark the enemy with a clear line and to remove associations from a particular nation. Not only the invaders themselves, but also us – we do not know nationalities of our heroes or their names. The language of robots is symbolic and jarring, while ours is songs, syllables, without explicit references. With the environment we communicate through images that, let’s say, are understandable to all of us, regardless of cultural differences.
When we’re alone, the obvious mission begins for us to find our friend and spend time with her. Nobody talks about salvation, liberation, or escape. We are children, we want to play together, and we don’t fully understand the situation, knowing only that robots – euphemistically speaking – do not wish us well.
By solving numerous logical puzzles, the two playable characters split up and rejoin, sharing individual abilities as they go off together. The boy can sneak and the girl can run, and when we’re together, holding hands, we have a chance to share our skills. By the way, it’s very striking, seeing two children holding hands, running through a city ruined by war.
Each chapter (there are 18 in the game) begins and ends with a description of the situation by the narrator. Each time he talks about “adventure”, “missions”, and “fun”, and that last word is still relevant, even considering the situation, as they steal medicines for people, hang posters all over the ghetto, and free the inhabitants of the places of misery. It’s better to laugh than to cry.
By performing various tasks and solving puzzles, we move only in one direction – forward. The game is linear; you can’t get lost in it or miss some quest. You can, however, overlook the pages of memories scattered throughout the war world. Each of them describes the facts from the times of the Second World War, presenting their brief characteristics. We do appreciate games that offer a bit of history (where it’s appropriate) and putting emphasis on educational values, and My Memory of Us does it in a very nice, unobtrusive way.
The difficulty level of the logic puzzles is varied, as the game isn’t too difficult, nor is breaking codes that tiring, but there were moments when we had to think twice about where the key to the puzzle was. An additional attraction was a kind of mini-game in the moments of escape – in both the car and the bathtub – where controls were great and it called on the memory of great times at the arcades. However, the final boss (who we shall not detail here) did raise the temperature in terms of frustration. Thanks to this we felt great satisfaction in his defeat.
Every story must come to an end, and it’s no different in My Memory of Us. There are some twists and turns of events in this story, and the fading memories are awakened by the intense experience of war hell told in an accessible, somewhat infantile way, suitable for younger players. A mature player may be a bit bored by the static method of narration, but it makes sense for the intended audience.
During the game, we didn’t experience any bugs or unexpected errors, and in fact we just kept wanting to play more as we finished each chapter. As you’d expect there are achievements to unlock, and plenty to see if you’re a completionist too. It’s worth mentioning here that the music that Patryk Scelina created – climactic, sensitive, and very well matched – forms a truly great score.
In summary, Juggler Games has created a very accessible presentation of World War II, suitable even for the youngest. Everything from the music to the varied level of difficulty logic puzzles and the expressive colours helps to make this an enjoyable and memorable journey.
Keyword: My Memory of Us