- Meant to be played in one sitting
- Emotional and story-driven
- Charming music and graphics
Loss is difficult for everyone, especially when that loss is of a loved one whom you have spent time creating a world with. Pine: A Story of Loss is just that – it explores the concept of loss and not wanting to forget the person who is no longer around.
Pine: A Story of Loss puts you in the place of a woodworker who lives in the middle of the forest, isolated from any neighbours or surroundings. His day-to-day life is simple and consists primarily of work that needs to be done to keep his homestead afloat. The housework is simple – gathering water, gathering food from your garden, drying long grass in case your roof needs it…
As you take on these little tasks that often only take the swipe of your finger to complete, you sometimes trigger reminders of your lost wife. A ribbon she always wore in her hair reminds you of when she put it up in the field. A caterpillar reminds you of when she first built the garden box, showing a mini-game that has you positioning the various plants that go into it.
All of these memories are simple and relatable, each beautifully told without words and instead with charming animations that show the moment you are remembering. You do continue on with your normal day-to-day life with the same swiping actions, but slowly, things change. Time passes. You don’t want to forget. Through woodworking, you are able to make little statues, living memories of your wife, so that you can remember her.
Pine: A Story of Loss has an interesting way of using repetitive actions to drive the story. Though there aren’t any real instructions, you can figure out what to do easily, and then often need to repeat that action at least three times before the task is done. This repetition highlights how boring and simple the character’s life is, which only breaks up during the memories he has. This suddenly gives you a mini-game where the interactions are more of a variety. There are rhythm puzzles, music-related puzzles, puzzles about placement…these memories are where the joy and fun are.
It’s a short experience, meant to be played in one sitting where you can immerse yourself into the story. The length itself feels perfect to showcase the story itself and I do enjoy the way that it was told. It feels heartfelt and touching.
When it comes to the gameplay, I did feel that some areas lacked polish. Sometimes, when I was carving out a memory in wood, which is tricky to control, the whole thing would auto-complete my carving after two swipes. Other times, I needed to basically carve the entire thing, painstakingly close, before it would be done.
This felt very random! Often, when inside my house, I could also see carvings that I hadn’t made yet and when I finished a new one, the wrong carving would be placed down, showing something I hadn’t created or had created previously. Though this was a small downside, in such an emotional tale, it did take away from what I was doing.
