‘Year Walk’ Review: Strange, But Enthralling

December 20, 2015 Patrick Hickey Jr. Video Game Reviews 0

If you thought there wasn’t a solid mature indie title on the Wii U, “Year Walk” may surprise you.

After playing through “Year Walk,” a myriad of thoughts will run through your head. Beautiful, intelligent, dizzying and even flat out confusing are a few of the easy quantifiers that’ll pop up. But in the end, it’s safe to say that the game is just weird. Like an M. Night Shyamalan flick weird. However, that doesn’t stop it from being a challenge-heavy, story-based adventure that has its moments

Released a few years ago on Steam and the iOS, Simogo’s “redefined” version uses the Wii U tablet to change the way controls, but the new controls are all that have changed. Visually, the game look essentially identical to the Steam version. In Smog’s defense, there’s little reason to change the look, but all of the puzzles are also the same, the only difference is now that cranks, levers and pushing and pulling are controlled with the Wii U tablet. It’s a nice tough, but for those that have played the game or experienced it in one way or another over the past few years, it’s not enough to warrant another purchase. Regardless, for those that get their kicks played weird, off-beat games and haven’t played it before, “Year Walk” is an unusually difficult title that features its share of jump scares and drama.

Simply put, the game’s biggest strength and weakness is the bizarre story. For those unfamiliar with the series and its aesthetics, if you could combine Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and the cult favorite “PT” on the PlayStation 4, you’d get “Year Walk.” Based on the story of Theodore Almsten, “Year Walk,” to be even more specific, is almost like a reimagined version of the Nathaniel Hawthorne classic “Young, Goodman Brown,” as the setting sees a young man set out for a walk into the woods that changes his life forever. But here’s the real difference- while Hawthorne’s story leaves the reader up in the air, “Year Walk” provided few real clues for the character’s main motivation and then ties up the story in a neat little bow at the end.

Continue Reading This Article From Review Fix Editor-In-Chief Patrick Hickey Jr. at Examiner.com

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13872 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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