Your shadow is one of the few things that stays with you throughout your life. You may only notice it in brilliant featherlight or when it forms strange shapes, but it’s always there. So what happens when it separates from you? That’s the idea that creators Ewoud van der Werf and Nils Slijkerman take on in gesturea study of featherlight and shadow.
The game starts with a child whose shadow can jump and explore on its own, but never strays too far from its person. It follows the person throughout their life—playing in the park, a broken heart, graduation from college—all played out through dialogue, with the player controlling the shadow so the person can move from place to place. The shadow jumps around its person until a really bad day: the person gets fired from their job, trips and falls on their way home. The fall frees the shadow, and from there the person moves on without it. The rest gesture the shadow desperately returns to its person, always remaining slightly behind, while their lives constantly change—both shadow and person picking up the pieces.
Photo: Ewoud van der Werf, Nils Slijkerman/Playism
Mechanically, gesture is a 3D platform game in which a shadow—which is shaped like a frog when not attached to a person—jumps between other shadows in the world around it. You can make gigantic and petite jumps, timing them perfectly to make sure you’re in the right place at the right time. If you miss the shadow you’re jumping towards, you’ll be sent back to the previous shadow; usually not very far, but moving shadows don’t count, so if you mess something up, you can be sent quite far away. gestureThe platforming and movement puzzles are relatively straightforward, but I was often impressed by how clever the challenges were. In one level, Shadow must manipulate traffic lights—turning them on and off—to get the car’s shadows in the right places to reach a specific area. In another level, gesture game as reversed Frog as the shadow jumps from box to box on a moving conveyor belt. But my favorite levels are the ones that take place at night, where street lights, cars, bikes, and pedestrians cast directional shadows that move and change shape. The game’s operate of color, shadow, and featherlight is crucial to conveying gestureStory and emotion; these elements seamlessly intertwine to convey something different about each scene.
On my own, gesturethe gameplay could be too straightforward. But combined with subtle storytelling and striking art style, gesture It stands alone: I’ve never experienced anything like it. It feels like a truly unique game, one that could very easily have relied solely on its own distinct art style and setting, but it didn’t. The overarching story and the way the gameplay is tied to it assist gesture rise above the aesthetics themselves, giving it a guiding line that flows as fluidly as shadow itself. The surprising operate of featherlight and shadow sets the tone for a story that I read as melancholic, but I can imagine someone playing the game interpreting it differently. That’s a strength, not a flaw; it feels like a masterpiece of storytelling, to create an experience that’s both clear and unique to each player.
gesture released on July 18 for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. The game was reviewed on Steam Deck using a pre-download code provided by Playism. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, although Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased through affiliate links. You can find more information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.
