Following Freeware: February 2017 releases

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Memories Fade

A dutiful son, you have gone to visit your widowed father. Age has not been kind to him, and he is now struggling to remember his life. On this visit, you have brought something with you that you hope will revive some of those memories for him. The item in question is a black and white picture of the very room in which he now spends most of his days. When the photo alone is not enough to prompt recollection, you set out to recreate the sensations associated with the objects depicted. Can you restore his memory, if only for a brief time?

Riaise has created a short but poignant tale in Memories Fade. The presentation is done in slightly jagged pixel art, but is still rendered in a realistic fashion. Animation is simple but effective, with only the lead character moving about most of the time. The game is in full colour, but parts of the scene briefly change to black and white when you succeed in sparking a memory of the past. The action takes place in a fairly small area consisting of the hall, main room and back garden of your father’s house. Gameplay is backed by a slow and melancholy piano piece that fits the sad tone of the subject matter. This is replaced by suitable alternative music when you achieve a certain important goal.

Both mouse buttons are used, with right-click looking and left-click moving and interacting. It is impossible to recreate the photo exactly as it appears, so you must use lateral thinking to come up with substitutes from objects around the house. Conversations with your father will provide some clues, though these are unsurprisingly vague. As well as finding appropriate items, you will also need to untangle a mess of wires to fix a television in a standalone puzzle. When you successfully match an element in the picture, the appropriate part of the scene changes to match the photo as an indication of your success. Once you have matched all necessary parts, a final scene plays showing an important event that happened on the day the snapshot was taken. The result is a bittersweet tale that some may find upsetting.

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