Well, I was expecting to write this one, because I intentionally chose the shortest game on my list next since this was a three day weekend. (I wasn't expecting it to absolutely destroy me, but uh, more on that in a second.)
Before Your Eyes is a 2021...adventure game? Question mark? from GoodbyeWorld, and it is their only game.
At some point before my fourth partner and I were dating, we were going through each other's "favorite games" lists on Steam. I had played all of theirs except Inscryption and this little game here. I backlogged both games with the intent of eventually playing them to discuss with this dog I was getting to know. (It turns out that I was utterly in love with them, and still am. Go figure. :3) We played Inscryption as a couple last year, but I had not yet made it to this, so I put it onto my card for Backlog Bingo and peeled it off today, not really knowing much past "my partner loves it and it has an incredibly unique core mechanic."
It took me five minutes to start crying.
At some point, I wasn't anymore, though I would cry multiple times more throughout my 70 minute playthrough of Before Your Eyes, ending it by just muttering "fuck" during the credits.
Before Your Eyes is the story of Benjamin Brynn, recently dead, dredged out of a sea of souls in the afterlife by a wolf named The Ferryman, who takes souls to a being called The Gatekeeper, who judges souls to decide if they are allowed to enter paradise. What proceeds is, in essence, a video game version of Death of a Salesman, with the story told entirely through Benjamin's memories as The Ferryman revisits his life to prepare to tell his story to The Gatekeeper. However, they cannot communicate in any way other than blinking. This is explained as being because Benjamin's soul is a formless blob, but it's not actually important, because it enables the game's main mechanical conceit:
Before Your Eyes requires a webcam. Well, technically it does not, but it's absolutely the intended experience, and if I had played this with my keyboard, I would have felt not nearly as good about this game as I do. As you revisit all of the various bits of Benjamin's life, scenes will play out, periodically with a metronome on the bottom of the screen. If you, the player, blink at these times, the scene advances, always forward in time. You will miss dialogue because of this. Quite literally, blink and you miss it, as Benjamin's history passes before you, you learn about his ups and downs, and try not to blink lest some important bit of context passes by.
From this core conceit sprouts one of the most ruinously effective examples of video-game-as-medium that I have ever played. This story, like OneShot, or Inscyption, or DDLC before it, could only be delivered in game form, and only in this way. Its narrative and mechanics entwine in a way that is only possible in this medium. (If I were trying to become more of a parody of myself, this is where I would write "ludonarrative consonance", but I will not do that. Wait. Oops.) I do not begin to understand the reviewers who wrote that the webcam integration detracts from the experience. To me, the webcam integration is the experience here.
It's hard to write more without spoiling much about what is already a very short game, but, well, if you play it, please take the content warnings before the title screen seriously. But suffice to say, this was the first addition to my Steam list of "games that are important to me" in a handful of years, and also I don't feel like I will ever be able to play it again. Words defy me, I am ruined. I want everyone that I know to play this and talk to me about it, and I also do not wish to inflict it upon a number of people that I love.
