Europe is laid back – its history is not

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I’m risking this isn’t relatable in any way: you know that music they play at the spa? This synthetic, spatial soundscape that isn’t exactly music, but isn’t NO music? What kind of playlist can you find if you take a wrong turn from your favorite lo-fi playlist? Chord after relaxing chord, interspersed with birdsong, the sounds of rain or a crackling fire? All right, Europe that’s it, but in video game form – at least when it comes to gameplay.

Europedeveloped by Helder Pinto and Novadust Entertainment, is a game that mainly involves gently moving through cel-shaded environments accompanied by soothing piano and electronic music. You play as Zee, a humanoid boy who uses his “Zephyr” backpack to fly through peaceful landscapes full of overgrown ruins and cute robots. During opening hours, among others: Europe I think it should have a title A pretty Vista simulatormoving you from one vantage point to another, panning the camera to showcase the game’s painterly aesthetic and surprising scope. If you liked the opening The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Europe it does these amazing zoom outs every 30 minutes or so. (Just a slight exaggeration.)

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I took the vibes alone, Europe it is a relaxing experience bordering on meditation. The challenge is absent here. Many enemies can be incapacitated with a hug. The puzzles are sketchy and ship quickly. You can’t die. If you’re looking for a challenge, look elsewhere. Europe trades difficulty for the joy of movement as the player explores the nooks and crannies of a gorgeous, if largely empty, world. Apart from Zee, this world is inhabited only by a variety of fauna (deer, rabbits, foxes) and robots worthy of an ark. And it is this latter population that introduces the game’s most obvious conflict: the stark contrast between aesthetics and narrative.

There is no shortage of post-apocalyptic games. Europefor all its frosty qualities, this is another entry in the genre. Humans have colonized Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, transforming it using AI-produced terraformers into something habitable. But not all is well with the mission to create a second home for people. The game’s narrator is an elderly man writing to his son, and you spend your time collecting the pages of his diary, piecing together the story of what happened before he set off on his European adventure – a story, it turns out, that’s quite shadowy. As the game progresses, it becomes clear that humanity’s flaws came with them to Europe, and the terraformers long ago decided to rebel against their creators, seeing humanity as contrary to their directive to create an ecologically robust environment. This conflict erupts into open war as humanity abandons earth and seeks refuge in heaven.

Photo: Novadust Entertainment/Games for future friends

Without giving anything away, I will say this in conclusion Europethe game is the ultimate statement on the conflict between human life and the environment. However, the questions asked by Europehistory – first of all, should humanity be given a second chance to sustain the planet if it has failed and failed again by doing nothing more than destroying the place they call home? — contrast with the experience of playing a game that is extremely frosty and, as I wrote, almost completely devoid of conflict.

In the brief three to four hours it takes to complete the game, you’ll encounter landscapes untainted by industry or greed, reading page after page of how humans, even in our desperate escape from a destroyed Earth, have brought our warlike tendencies to what they should be. was a utopia. In his narrative Europe explicitly asks the player to consider whether we as humanity deserve Europe. My answer, watching the clouds roll over the green hills dotted with undisturbed creatures, both biological and technological, was, honestly, no. We had our chance. Let them try. Let’s give someone else a chance if we wasted the first and second. Let the world reclaim the world and see if a newer, gentler order can emerge.

I don’t think the developers would agree with me on this, but it’s fascinating that the game allows for such a reading. Europe the game has some flaws: the camera can often fight with you in flight, some of the sound effects still feel placeholder, and periodically deactivating Zee’s ability to glide freely through the air (to add challenge) just doesn’t work well, it’s no fun to be able to fly, and then someone tells you to walk. Again, if you’re looking for a challenge, look for greener pastures (though good luck finding greener pastures than Europe‘S).

However, during Europe It’s not a game I can recommend without reservations, what I like most about it is its reluctance to square the gameplay circle and narrative dissonances. Seeing where the story is heading, I can safely say that the contrast is not unintentional on the creators’ part. And while I personally bristle with more positive tendencies, I admire the fact that it continued to the end Europe asks you to decide for yourself what you think about all this. It’s a brave game that hands such thematic decisions back to the player rather than beating them over the head with the desired interpretation. Europe may be spa music from post-apocalyptic games, but its relaxation raises a deeper question: do we deserve a greener world? And if not, how can we change to fit into this greener utopia we have dreamed of for so long?

Europe was released on October 11 for Nintendo Switch and Windows PC. The author played on PC using a download code provided by Future Friends Games. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, although Vox Media may earn commissions on products purchased through affiliate links. Additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy can be found here.

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