One of my favourite films of all time is Eternal Sunshine of Spotless Mind. The concept of erasing a memory from your mind is a great one for story mining and that’s exactly what Will Die Alone homes in on. Take memory erasement, place it in a horrible corporate and government culture and the pressure to get things right and you have a great concept for all kinds of moral problems and grey areas.
Working for Dewitt Corp, you are on a one month trial to erase peoples memories so that they can enjoy a potentially happy or different life. Each of the four stages in the game presents you with a customer whose asked for their lives to be happier. You in turn have to read their file, request and choose from one of four memories to erase. Doing so will alter their lives but obviously there’s one “good” choice and also one specific “bad” choice that will ensure each person will die alone according to the computer system. After each selection you’ll get a few key dates and moments of that persons life and you’ll be hoping your choices will have had the right impact.
I’ll purposely avoid story spoilers but it is definitely a story you’ll want to play a few times over as a good or bad employee as the results of the people you play with alongside what happens with you between shifts will alter. From that perspective, Will Die Alone makes a good story. It is succinct but to the point of being brutally blunt without nuance. I guessed all the twists and turns before they happened because the dialogue interactions were so limited and on rails without fluff. My main concern is the length. You can absolutely complete the game in about 10-15 minutes and after a bit of a play around with choices, you’ll be done. Will Die Alone makes no apologies or secrets for being a gaming short but when there’s something so rich for story mining, I’d love to see this expanded into something more detailed and in depth.
I don’t mind the workmanlike graphics although they won’t endear the game to many, and there’s a purposeful lack of sound too. The narrative is solid but just be aware going in that this is one of those stories that will make you want more.
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