This New Emotional and Nostalgic Photography Video Game Is Beautiful
The Star Named EOS is a new story-driven puzzle adventure video game built around photography. The game sports a stunning hand-drawn art style and celebrates the power of photography from start to finish.
In the game, available on all current consoles and PC, players assume control over Dei, who works to connect with his roots and solve a family mystery by carefully recreating old photos that his mother left for him.
PlayStation describes the game as “A heartwarming story of following a mother’s footsteps through photography.” Nintendo’s eShop listing goes further, writing, “The Star Named EOS is a story-rich puzzle adventure built around photography. Explore a beautiful hand-drawn world as you photograph some of the most precious yet fleeting moments in life. As you recreate photos from the past, you will slowly uncover the truth of a family mystery, and the love hidden within fragmented memories will eventually become clear.”
The first-person adventure puzzle game also promises to impact the player on an emotional level. Initial reviews cite the game’s ability to craft a powerful, in-depth story despite being relatively short.
The story is divided into chapters, with Dei returning to meaningful places, exploring, and capturing photographs. As Dei navigates the world, his mother’s ethereal voice fills the area, helping to develop the story and explore concepts of memory and trauma. This all happens against the background of an astrological theme.
As Nintendo Life‘s review explains, the game is emotionally captivating and relies heavily on in-game photography.
“You’ll no doubt have encountered in-game photography countless times before, but in The Star Named EOS, it’s the main function. Dei’s relationship with his mother is marked by a shared love of photography, and she’s even passed down her old Polaroid camera to him. As Dei, your primary task is to recreate your mother’s photos,” says reviewer Michelle See-Tho.
While that review is positive, and many others so far are, some critics have lamented the game’s puzzles as being a bit too simple and shallow, while others have dinged the game for being too short (it should take seven or so hours to complete).
PetaPixel plans to pick up the game on Nintendo Switch and give it a full review, and perhaps add it to the running guide, 15 Great Photography Games to Play in 2024.
The Star Named EOS launched on July 23 and is available now as a downloadable title for Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and PC. The game is priced at $14.99, although it’s currently on sale for $13.49 on multiple platforms.
Image credits: Playism
