Long-term viewers and readers will know I enjoy esoteric games that veer towards pretentiousness, in part because I’m an artsy, pretentious person myself sometimes. I’d like to think I walk the fine line between “good” art and empty art trying to be something it’s not, but I know I’ve fallen down that rabbit hole plenty of times in my lifetime.
Plum Road Tea Dream is one such game that walks a very fine line between art and abstraction. It’s a mixed-media project where the game is one version of the experience, but if you live in Belgium, you can experience the game in a theatre, with actors, as part of a tea ceremony. I love this idea, as it blurs the mediums of game, theatre, and ceremony, and those three themes will crop up time and time again when playing Plum Road Tea Dream.
From a gameplay perspective, this is a walking simulator set up inside 3D-scanned spaces and clay sculptures. We play as the character S, who is moving through dream environments to explore pieces of their being that they’ve sacrificed or locked away for safekeeping from the harsh reality of the world. That’s my personal interpretation, anyway. A central empty theatre slowly fills up with collected objects over time, as you explore different environments that look into layered, complex topics such as homophobia, sensuality, race, and collecting trauma and mourning. Along the way, you’ll collect tomes to build a psychedelic god-eye that watches over your every move. It’s a trippy magic-eye of Sauron that you can design yourself, but you’ll never escape its glare.
Aside from collectables, your main tasks are walking, listening, and sitting in spaces that want you to slow down and think. Movement is at times painfully slow, as the game wants you to sit with the pain the character of S has dealt with. Once you’ve experienced a part of that pain, an Undertale-styled RPG battle to release that part of yourself becomes available. The battle system is a rock-paper-scissors conversation tree to allow that part of yourself to blossom and feel free. They are sometimes a bit on-the-nose, but when everything else is so abstract and esoteric, the battles feel like tangible story threads to ground yourself with. Whilst the gameplay itself is quite straightforward, the graphics are a clashing mix of sculptures, vaporwave PS1-core, and FMV-like scans of real-world objects, people, and environments. The mixture of hyper-realism and absurdity makes for a striking visual palette, and whilst music is sparse, it’s effective when used for specific scenes.
Whilst many may critique the minimal gameplay, which many walking simulators lean into, there’s one thing Plum Road Tea Dream does that no other game does. It made me think about collective grief and trauma in a new way. When another person is shot and killed by ICE, or the recent Berlin Pride attack takes place, or another law marginalises minorities, there’s an intangible sadness that anyone who is part of that community feels. I’m gay, and it’s exhausting to have to fight for equality and respect, or to just “be” sometimes. An attack on the community, even if I am not actively part of it, feels like a personal attack on you. I’m not sure I’ll ever feel 100% comfortable in my own skin, and whether that’s down to internalised homophobia, or political and society’s landscapes ensuring that I am less than by law or morality, I’m not sure. Plum Road Tea Dream attempts to explore this through both sexuality and race with set pieces that leave you in empty spaces to sit with your thoughts. It won’t click for everyone, but I applaud the developer for boldly attempting to convey intangible concepts.
I champion games like Plum Road Tea Dream as they feel experimental and quite daring. There are some truly exceptional art pieces scattered throughout the game. My main gameplay critique is that sometimes I couldn’t spot what the next waypoint was, and I got lost, especially in the mausoleum section with its vast landscapes to walk through. If you are a thinker and a sensitive person, I recommend giving this title a try. I didn’t expect to feel part of a wider network of collective trauma, nor feel like I could be part of a collective healing. Everyone’s experience with Plum Road Tea Dream will be unique to you. Some will find it healing; some I’m sure will be angry and annoyed. Others will be mournful. This game meets you where you are, and tries to signpost the way forward to feeling more comfortable in your skin. If that’s not a great goal for a game, then I don’t know what is.
Now, how do I get to Belgium to see the play in action?!
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