Back Then

One thing I appreciate about the gaming world is the diversity. We can go anywhere, do anything, and experience things that we wouldn’t normally be able to. One aspect of this that I am happy to see expanding is the games that explore different disorders and diseases. It may not make for a pleasing subject matter, but through the media of games we can get a taste of what it is like within these areas and walk away with a new appreciation and understanding for the issues the person and the people around them have to battle through on a daily basis. My biggest example so far was this year’s She Could Fly, which explored what it is like to live with OCD through interesting gameplay and documentary videos. I walked away from that game with a completely new outlook on the condition, a new awareness of how people have to live there lives, and I was trying to pass on this new knowledge to others that make light of OCD. This leads into Back Then, which is aiming to give people a look into the world of someone who is suffering from Alzheimer’s and how it affects the mind, and yet again I walked away with a new understanding. 

This story is told from the perspective of Thomas, a writer who has been hit with old age and Alzheimer’s. Bound to a wheelchair, we see the world through his eyes, and we experience how this disease distorts his reality by the things he sees and the people he struggles to remember. This is not a game full of fun and laughs; it can get quite dark in places, as you’d expect, and I did need a few moments to organise my thoughts and feelings after my two- to three-hour playthrough had finished. 

The majority of the game takes place in Thomas’s rather splendid house. As soon as I started, I instantly could tell I was controlling someone in a wheelchair, thanks to the game’s great physics. It’s not often I pick up on this, but here it was very prominent. The house itself is well decorated and feels very much lived in, and as you explore, you’ll find things to do to progress the story. It’s a very linear affair; doors will not open until the game needs you to enter that room, and you have to complete tasks in a certain order for this to happen. 

As the story progressed, I learnt of Thomas’s problems with his children and his wife and also the problems around why those problems arose through his upbringing. This all gave me more than I was ever expecting from the game, but it turned out to be valuable knowledge as it gave me a bigger understanding of Thomas’s Alzheimer’s. The house also shows the effects of the disease and how Thomas perceives it, especially through some of the moments when the disease is at its most powerful. 

Through the game, I came up against various puzzles to mix up the gameplay. These ranged from finding a key to a locked door or finding cogs to open a hidden door. Most of these were simple in design, and I didn’t have too much of an issue with them, but there were a couple that were a little too cryptic, and at points it was the luck of the straw to fumble onto the solution. This can be said of other parts of the game, and it seems the developers clearly did not want to offer any handholding to the player. I could have done with some kind of hint system, just a simple mechanic, not too involved, but just enough to give me a nudge in the right direction. In the end, I resulted in a YouTube video, which gave me the nudge I was looking for. 

One of the main aspects of the storytelling is how Thomas’s family feels towards him. These are described by a floating voice as you are completing tasks or just exploring the house. The writing associated with this and in general was sometimes a bit too much for my tastes, choosing words and crafting sentences that felt too clever for its own good and shrouding the story behind them. I would’ve much preferred a much simpler English to have been used, and I feel doing that would help not just me but others too to fully understand what was being told to us. 

This is a slight negative and one that really shouldn’t be a major part of your decision to play Back Then, and there are many other positives involved in the game. One of those is the sound design, which plays a big role in the immersion of the game. It’s recommended at the start to wear headphones. Which I did, and the voices that you hear all around you really spooked me out. If you’ve ever played Hellblade, you know what I am talking about. This doesn’t happen as frequently here, but it’s still an effective storytelling beat. The rest of the soundtrack is eerie, with lots of slow pieces with piano; it does the job and sets the atmosphere perfectly. Every character is voice-acted, and not once did I cringe at the performances, as all the voice actors seemed very capable and never felt out of place. 

One last thing I would like to mention, and this is something I always shy away from as it is about the ending of the game, or the lack of one. As Thomas’s tale ended, I was prepared for the credits to start rolling, but on this occasion the game started all over again straight from the start. I explored this a little to see what would happen, but as I carried on, it became clear that you can carry on and play through the whole game again, like it’s on a gaming loop. I looked into this slightly, and some were suggesting that in the new loops Thomas forgets more and more, showing the disease at its most powerful. If this is true, then it’s an interesting way to show this. I wasn’t enamoured with the game enough to carry on, but I am sure there are many out there that will be.