Most dialogues exist to give background details about the town of Carthage and other less interesting characters. Though feeling necessary for the pacing, I can’t help but feel they are a little monotonous. But unfortunately, between these meaningful conversations and quiet moments of mundane beauty lies frequent long-drawn-out dialogues. It is a world filled with relatable characters each with their own dreams and goals, ambient tinkling keys and strings, impressionistic backgrounds, beautiful blotchy spaces of nature, and striking structures still homily in scope. This is where Where the Heart Leads is at its best, combing decision-making with a world that is hard not to love. Do you trust the person enough to let them choose their path? And when do you step in? If ever? “ Where the Heart Leads is at its best when its combing decision-making with a world that is hard not to love.” It is these kinds of choices that are so pervasive in the game. It’s up to you whether or not you rat him out or let him off the hook to solve it on his own. Without spoiling too much, an accident occurs early on in the game that turns out to be Sege’s fault. The real question becomes: how do you believe in him enough to still call him out for his bullshit and support him to follow his dreams? Or do you choose to never believe in him at all? On the other hand, Whitney’s father was raised on a patriotic diet of individualism, traditional family roles, and personal goals.īut behind Sege’s relaxed and philosophical leanings, there is some selfishness and inherently unreliability he interprets as hippy culture. Sege is a young aspiring artist entrenched in hippy culture and with a taste for rebellion and alternative lifestyles. “These tough choices are so pervasive in the game.”Ī constant source of tension in the game is between Sege and your father. I have never seen it done in a game to this scale. Where the Heart Leads ensures there are no true win states or correct paths, only a complex tapestry of agency you weave yourself. In this system of no right or wrong answers, Armature Games creates an experience full of sacrifices. Gaining the trust of everyone is next to impossible, even for the most persistent players. In my own playthrough, characters even called me out for never taking sides at times. In doing so, you can end up alienating yourself from both sides in an argument. While you can choose to take the middle ground in every choice, it’s not always the best idea. ![]() All of these will result in a myriad of different outcomes that affect the relationships with your core group. They take Whitney through his fleeting summer days before college to young adulthood in Carthage and beyond.įrom the beginning, you have to take a side on various issues. All of these characters and many more come into play in the first few hours. “In this system of no right or wrong answers, Armature Games creates an experience full of sacrifices.”Īfter the sinkhole framing device, Where the Heart Leads begins in earnest, introducing core characters in Whit’s life, including his artistic but troubled brother Sege, his emotionally distant father, and, Rene his ambitious partner and future wife. For all its shortcomings, its dull moments, its bizarre narrative decisions, its undeveloped corners, Where the Heart Leads manages to capture life in motion, and a lifetime of story and lessons that play out organically in response to your actions. Even attempting a story of this size in a 7-10 hour game seems ill-advised. ![]() In-game Screenshotīut when you’re grounded in Whitney’s life, forced to guide him through a network of meaningful and everchanging paths and relationships on his family farm as a teenager, it starts to come together. But the dialogue was stiff and unspecific, and the surrealist element of a sinkhole swallowing up yourself and the family dog when you attempt to rescue it, leading to a plot-breaking reflection on the protagonist, Whitney Anderson’s life, was an odd way to frame the narrative of the game. ![]() It aims to tell the story of a man’s life from childhood to old age. In the first twenty minutes of Where the Heart Leads, I had my doubts.
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