The Indie Informer

The follow-up title to the singular adventure Before Your Eyes was always bound to attract attention. That’s before winning the Tribeccca Games Festival award last year and SXSW Sydney’s best international prize earlier this year. Everything that has come before this release has set the bar of expectation extraordinarily high.

Goodnight Universe clears the bar but without inciting much awe. Its narrative tackles what it is to be human, though from a point of view that almost necessitates shallow insight. It superficially explores the themes of loneliness and being isolated inside your own skin. It pushes its predecessor’s use of novel camera tracking technology into more complex realms. However, everything leans a little too close to gimmick, rather than embodying or elevating the game’s purpose. Like its small protagonist, the experience takes determined but unrefined steps in a journey cleared of highs and lows that it might otherwise stumble over.

I begin philosophically enough, in a dark cave — eat your heart out, Plato. Here, the developers are free to introduce me to the game’s expanded technology. When I turn on my camera tracking, I can blink to bring the world into focus, communicate basic emotions by smiling or frowning in real life, and hone in on a sought-after sound by squeezing my eyes shut and moving my head to find the right frequency.

Unlike Before Your Eyes, whose blinking mechanic physically manifested the emotional impact of seeing my life pass far too quickly, the follow-up’s new bells and whistles function largely the same as clicking a button would. Rather than selecting something with my finger, I do it with a flick of my lashes. At its best, these controls replicate the in-game use of psychic powers, though.

The team’s ability to create endearing characters, which I quickly appreciate, is undiminished. My parents struggle authentically with past regrets, childhood neglect, and fears of inadequacy. My older sister, likewise, hides an internal battle between meeting expectations and blazing her own trail. A struggle that I can glean with my mind, but only make worse as I try to apply my unusual powers to aid her. These fleeting moments are the best of the game.

The grand reveal of why I can manipulate the world around me flies far beyond these charming, mundane moments. And the farther away it gets, the less human the experience feels — even while my unique powers grow. Goodnight Universe finds its way back in time for a satisfying end, luckily.