The River (2025)

Hauntingly beautiful

pov you are evil

The River is a short narrative-driven point-and-click game that explores death, memory, regret, and the uncertainty of what might exist beyond ordinary life. Developed and published by bokchoi, it takes a deliberately modest approach to its premise, concentrating on atmosphere and storytelling instead of attempting to build a large adventure filled with complicated mechanics. It is also notable as the developer's first game project, with much of the artwork, music, sound design, and general presentation created as part of a highly personal production. The result is an experience whose limited scope works to its advantage, allowing its central mystery to remain focused from beginning to end. The story begins with the protagonist awakening in an unfamiliar void with almost no memory of what happened before arriving there. What remains is an unsettling awareness that something terrible occurred during their previous life. Trapped somewhere between existence and whatever comes afterward, the protagonist must gradually understand the circumstances that brought them to this strange place. Returning to the living world initially seems like the obvious objective, but the narrative complic…

I met bokchoi at a convention, and my first impression of his illustrations were how great his art looks while working with an extremely limited color palette! We talked about game dev and The River, I’m very glad I played, nice discovery. Landscapes, characters portraits and their animations were great! Loved the door animation too. I was immersed immediately, it’s a great game to just disconnect for an hour and play something simple to relax. Wish I could have paid for the game :)

Artsyle looks ok but having things move accross the screen makes it look jaring and gave me motion sickness. Story was quite predictable from the moment you meet the young girl. Not interactive enough for me to call this a game.

Good game i guess