Games, while considered an art form legally in most of the world, are also one of the youngest mediums and generally the last to cover serious topics. Many times, even attempting goes badly as we see in some cases like Lilya & The Shadow War getting blocked from going onto the App Store. Due to their newness and interactive nature, games are often held to stricter standards on content than other mediums which make a title like That Day We Left a breath of fresh air to see.
That Day We Left is a 3d adventure game that focuses on choice and narrative into its gameplay adding in some resource management as well. The story has been done with a focus on providing a realistic view of the political and humanitarian situation from a refugee's point of view by speaking with refugees and listening to the stories of situations they found themselves in. You play as Rashid, the head of a family that is attempting to escape the war and find refuge somewhere in Europe. The goal with That Day We Left is not to take a stance or preach on it, but provide a neutral representation of the issue with the difficulty that real life has weighting issues on various sides while creating an engaging experience.
While Adventure and Survival genres aren't really mixed much, it is a logical match for the game and mechanically. Adventure games typically require you to have certain objects or skills to solve problems, while survival games tend to stretch those resources thin by their nature. With a proper modular design and various choices, That Day We Left could be highly replayable and choice intensive as you balance out whether to save something to solve a puzzle or use it to survive now.
That Day We Left doesn't have a release date yet but will be coming to PC and Mac. You can find out more about the developer, Innervoid, on their website.
Quick Take
I see a lot of games and announcements but not many about titles from developers with some history who are trying to look at an issue in what appears to be a respectful manner. While Innervoid's last title, Icy, wasn't great or anything it still proved they could create a game. This is an even more ambitious undertaking and is one I'm interested to see how it turns out.
But what do you think? Do you think video games should tackle current topics? Are you interested in That Day We Left? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
