The Black Whale

[spoiler]The Black Whale is a story you hear a thousand times, but for such a short game, there's a lot to unpack here if you really look too deep into it. Talking about how the capitalist system can alienate and neglect people, leading individuals to seek other matters to escape reality from losing hope for the future, so they take drugs to hallucinate or go into a blank state. Some drugs can be all well and good, but relying on them too much could cause them to be self-destructive to their body, mind and life with the possibility of losing everything. That's how I see the game, but I could be wrong on this.[/spoiler]

This felt like it was made for a school project where the task was to "depict what addiction does to life", a quick but well made journey that explores the reality of hitting rock bottom.

I'll recommend it because it's free. This game is more of a walking simulator than anything resembling horror. It touches on topical issues (homelessness, addiction, corrupt government, etc.) but fails to expand on them beyond stating their existence, likely because it's so short and doesn't take the time to do so. It's really sad, and it creates empathy for the people suffering from those issues, but I found the story to be a little over-the-top to the point where it became melodramatic in the later half. It was just one bad event after another with no breaks and minimal character development. Characters with too much self-pity are hard to follow. I feel like the story would've been stronger if the main character started out with hopes and dreams he had to give up on when he became addicted. Because he begins the game with suicidal depression, he doesn't have much to lose since he's already at rock bottom, and his character arc feels flat. Something I thought this game did really well, though, was contrasting the harsh reality with the beautiful hallucinations. The drug-induced world is peaceful and pretty compared to the real world, and it's easy to understand why the main ch…

I wouldn't exactly call this a game but at least it had a plot.

interesting story

when you have lost friends in this way, because they wanted to overwhelm the ultimate system by it roots, this isn't just a game. it's a reminder. "Man muss lernen, Schönheit zu erkennen, ansonsten wird die Unbegreiflichkeit Einen zugrunde richten."