Reviews

• gamedeal user

  Mar 25, 2022

  󠀡󠀡󠀡
• gamedeal user

  Apr 11, 2022

  I'd do it all again.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 28, 2023

  hes just like me fr
• gamedeal user

  Apr 11, 2023

  i have gathered over 1,000 pieces of moss edit: i have gathered over 2,000 pieces of moss
• gamedeal user

  Jul 30, 2023

  I finished the Longing a few months ago, but I haven't stopped thinking about it. I found this game to be incredibly emotionally impactful, maybe even the most memorable gaming experience I've ever had. If you are someone who gets attached to small, helpless, wide-eyed fictional creatures ("little guys"), you will likely enjoy being emotionally wrecked by this experience. I don't mean to imply that this game is outright sad, but the hollow ennui is crushing in the most beautiful way possible. There is plenty to explore and find if you are patient. I looked forward to coming home every day to log in and see if I could get just a little further along in this journey. The art and music evoke fuzzy, possibly-imagined nostalgia for late-night animated foreign films and uncomfortable picture books, and it never got old through my playthrough. I drew my own map as I went along, and I highly recommend that experience. I cried after I completed the game. I even called my mom about it.
• whydee

  Aug 6, 2023

  This game teaches you to control your energy, it shows you that there is no point in hurrying up, all the actions take a lot of time. Sometimes you even have to wait for quite some time for things to happen. I have quite enjoyed it :)
• gamedeal user

  Mar 7, 2020

  Lonely and depressing. Try to fill the void with material goods and media. Just like real life.
• gamedeal user

  Mar 9, 2020

  The true game-breaker for most will be the main character's walking speed. It's utterly glacial. It's by design. And you'll either love it or hate it. The authorial intent is plain as day. But that doesn't mean many or even most will be willing to put up with it. Crossing a single screen-sized room takes about 30 seconds. The game is very vertical and going up 3 or 4 switchbacks can take 60. So what gives? What's the point? Pacing. You're one little guy. By himself. Underground. Alone for 400 days waiting for your god to wake back up. You're not forced into the situation. You're not unexpectedly lost and looking for a way out. Your job is to...wait. The Longing is a meditative game. In slowing down the in-game character, the game is also slowing down the player. What seems like a crazy design choice at first, slowly reveals itself as inspired mechanic (again that won't be for everyone). As you slowly plod from one room to the next exploring new areas, your guy talks to himself. Reflecting on the nature of being. The impact of loneliness. Sense of purpose. The slow pace of traversal puts you into your character's shoes. You feel the weight of 400 days in isolation. It's a melancholy experience. And the game triumphs in transporting you to that moment. But at the same time it asks a lot of the player to get there. It urges one to give themselves up to the glacial pacing. I can honesty, with zero judgement, see how many will view it as a bridge too far. I think the title of the game is apt. The whole experience reaches in and touches that lonely, longing part of us all. That existential, "We really are alone in the world." tenderness inside that we spend so much time unconsciously covering up with extracurricular activities and relationships. It's certainly a mood piece. A successful one at that. Not gonna be for everyone, but it doesn't need to be. It's gonna resonate for some, not all. The lucky ones that stick with it will discover a valuable experience that just doesn't come along very often.
• gamedeal user

  Mar 9, 2020

  A few minutes into the game, you find your adorable critter (who I call Shady) sitting in an armchair in a mostly empty room. Behind you is a fireplace: empty, cold, and quiet. A few minutes later, and I have the pieces of flint and coal I need to start the fire, and begin the slow walk back to my room. Shady takes a long time to go anywhere or do anything. When you find a piece of coal, you can have Shady pick it up. The shuffling walk stops, and Shady slowly bends over to grab the black chunk. Yet, you can’t be upset about the sloth, because (as the game observes very early), you are waiting for 400 days. Why hurry? If you collect enough coal, you can start a fire in your room. It crackles in the background, pleasant and homey. You sit in your armchair with the warmth behind you, and the timer ticks slightly faster. Each tick of time passes four seconds instead of one. Then, after a few minutes, the fire goes out and time slows back down. 400 days. I have Shady wander the caverns, looking for any useful items that might be lying around, or areas that might be accessible later. Every now and then, a piece of coal falls from the ceiling, and my heart jumps a bit. Fuel for my fire! 400 days. After finding a few pieces of paper to draw on, I return home. As Shady’s slow patter trudges on, I think again about what the game said in the beginning. Why hurry? I think of the fire back in my small room, and the fourteen days I have to wait for moss to grow before I can harvest it. I think of the five pieces of coal it will take to start the fire up again. Then, a resigned understanding sinks in: nothing I do will significantly speed up this game. I just have to wait... for 400 days. A piece of coal falls right in front of Shady. I don't stop to pick it up.
• gamedeal user

  Jul 25, 2020

  The shade is the kind of character that you easily love. The game has really helped me to slow down and to appreciate everything you do. Normally when games are full of things to do, you care less about the next thing and want to proceed. In the longing, I cherish every (small) thing I find. Update: I'm now much further in the game, and I can say that the game is very strong. The story and puzzles are well-rounded, the puzzles are easy in the beginning and more difficult in the end and the atmosphere is great. There is however one thing that kind of destroyed the game for me, and that is the fact that time in speeds up way too fast. I expected to carry this game with me for over a year, an although I would have been okay with time passing two or maybe three times faster, it started passing over twenty times faster in the house of the shade. It kinda destroyed the whole "there is nothing to achieve, I can spend weeks just reading and sometimes going for a walk, I have so much time" atmosphere for me. There are some difficult puzzles in the end, and I would have liked to spend weeks keeping a puzzle in the back of my mind while I'm trying to read Moby Dick, but this isn't the way the game turned out (I looked up walkthroughs). I would very much like to see an option which gives a much weaker version of time speeding up, ten times as weak if you ask me.