REVIEW
THE MISSING
J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories
Erich Ruther
The Missing: J.J. Macfeild and the Island of Memories has ended up being my nominee for game of the year in 2018. I know this obscure Indie game will never be a finalist, and that’s fine. I know the game has a strange clumsiness, and that clumsiness really does bring down the overall experience. Yet in a year where I have played many great games (such as Monster Hunter Worlds, Soul Calibur VI, Vermintide 2 and Monster Prom To name a few) The Missing was the game my mind kept trailing back too when I brainstormed candidates.
So why is that? Why do I keep coming back to this clumsy, gimmicky, ugly platformer? There is the plot. Anyone who has played the game knows what I’m talking about, anyone who hasn’t don't worry, I won’t spoil it. The story is good and unique. There is a twist that gets revealed either at the end or a little earlier if you get the collectibles and pay attention to the character interactions. But I won’t lie, I support the people this game represents, but I’m not one of them and so I don’t think it sold me on the story alone either.
I could understand the surrealist symbolism. I was genuinely empathizing with the characters and I think that’s something I will hold onto in the years to come
I think what really got my attention was the overall feel and atmosphere of the game. Like watching some pretentious European art film. Most of it is laborious panning camera shots of things the director has decreed as ‘beautiful’. Normally they are right, but it can get a little relentless. However, after every hour or so in the game there would be a moment where I felt like I ‘got it’. I could see what the developers were getting at. I could understand the surrealist symbolism. I was genuinely empathizing with the characters and I think that’s something I will hold onto in the years to come.
As I said earlier I don’t identify with the lifestyle the characters in this game are faced with. But I feel like in these brief moments I mentioned, I had an opportunity to relate and understand them in a way books, movies and TV can never quite manage. Thanks to the interactive medium of games, particularly puzzle games, I can’t tune out or half focus. I’m there with J.J. the whole time. I think genuine empathy is a rare and valuable thing these days. That's why I have nominated it for game of the year.
That or I’m hipster trash and games are pretty weird.