Developers often talk about their games “not holding the player’s hand,” wearing it as if it were a badge of honor. Most of the time I think we all just roll or eyes and giggle. That is not the case with else Heart.Break, a game developed by about nine different people who don’t go under any combined studio name so I nobody can tell you who made this game without listing off a bunch of hard to pronounce Swedish names for half an hour.
You find yourself at a nightclub, beer in hand, talking to a strange woman you just met. She’s already invited you to another club located at an abandoned mine just down the road. Before that, you were wondering around town deaf, dumb, and blind looking for you new boss, whom you may or may not have found. Before that even, you just got off the boat to your new home, a small island town of Dorisburg, whom nobody’s mysteriously never heard of, and the Devotchka Hotel, a rundown dump with a weird owner. At this point, the only thing you know for sure is that you’re supposed to be selling soda, and that is far from an exaggeration.
For me, this is a prime example of wanting to love a game, but just not being able to. There are a lot of great ideas here, but they’re not all well executed. But for more on why else Heart.Break() can be in our From Indie With Love series when I don’t actually love it, well, you’ll have to watch the above video to find out.
