Before Your Eyes is very much a game that will make you cry, one way or another. Either you’ll cry because of the deeply emotional storyline, or you’ll cry because you forgot to blink. And blinking is an extremely important mechanic in Before Your Eyes.
To get the most out of Before Your Eyes, you need a webcam. Odds are you have a webcam at this point--thanks to the pandemic, it’s practically become a requirement of doing anything these days, from business to schooling. Before Your Eyes tracks your own eye movement to let you look around each scene, and every time you blink you progress the game’s narrative.
And that narrative is definitely a tear-jerker. You’re dead, and you’re getting a recap of your life thanks to the narration of a very cat-like Ferryman. He tells you that every time you blink you’ll be transported forward in time. ”Could be a second, could be five years,” says the Ferryman in the game’s announcement trailer.
Because the game’s progression is entirely based on whether or not you blink, it’s impossible to eventually reach the end. Well, not without suffering from some extremely dry eyes at least.
Before Your Eyes is the first game from GoodbyeWorld Games, and one of many for publisher Skybound Games (of The Walking Dead fame). Everything is fully voice acted, from the Ferryman to the various characters you'll meet along your life's journey.
What's truly interesting is how Before Your Eyes seems to pounce on webcams as a game mechanic and that wouldn't have been possible before the coronavirus pandemic. Only because of a virus do we all have webcams making a game like Before Your Eyes possible.
Before Your Eyes arrives on Steam on April 8. Wishlist it now.