A NEW LIFE. review - Love and Loss

(Reviewed by Melody Werner)
a new life. is a 2020 story-driven romance game by Angela He, where your decisions greatly change the course of the narrative. It's altogether quite short and sweet, Angela estimates 40-90 minutes of gameplay for all endings, which is pretty on-point in my case. I've been following Angela's work for a few years now at this point, after wandering onto her itch.io page a while ago. Since then, I've been keeping tabs--as she's a superlative artist and has consistently crafted riveting short stories which delve into themes which I find incredibly alluring, such as losing a love, honest depictions of depression, and general queerness. Though it's usually lesbianism; Angela being queer herself. And, being a fellow degenerate myself, I like to support another queerbo when I can.


a new life's art is, as always with Angela, terrific and presented with an air of artful minimalism. The characters are well-illustrated; expressive and delightful. While there aren't too many backgrounds, those that are there are all so lovely and full of detail--the coolest details being some pride flags in the background of a certain environment, which is always awesome to see. Controls are so simple that there's not really much to say of them--you click on speech bubbles to choose what you want to say or do. For what it's worth, though, it is handled without a hitch. The game's narrative is tender and warm, but never saccharine. There's an impeccable sense of gravity to the endings; they're so powerful and emotionally resonant. Part of that comes from the interactivity of feeling like you have a say in how the characters's story is written--which is obviously inherent to this being a game, but the quality of the writing and characterization dwarfs the interactivity in just how much they add to the experience. These characters feel like real people, with their own emotions and dreams and personalities and inside jokes they share with one another--you quickly come to care for how things turn out for them. Their romance comes across as incredibly natural and sincere, and so when tragedy strikes, it throws you completely off. In a good way, that is.


a new life. is not going to go down in history as one of the greatest video games of all time, it's more of a short heartbreaker, so it's not trying to be. And as short heartbreakers go, I'd say it's unparalleled in execution. I'd love to see a more built-out story from Angela, though I don't think that longer necessarily means better. a new life. gets a 5/5.

Fantastic

Summary:
a new life. is proof positive that brevity and sincerity go a long way in crafting a potent experience.

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