『 The Graveyard 』

Only in the world of independent productions can we see games such as this one. In fact, after playing The Graveyard, I asked myself how much content does a game have to offer to be considered a game. Belgian developer duo Tale of Tales apparently think, that the feel and art direction are more important than gameplay, which in its turn makes The Graveyard into a nice experiment, but not necessarily a game in the usual sense of the word.


We take control of an old lady, who visits the local graveyard. The objective here is to get to the bench by the chapel. We can't go beyond the main path, and even if we stray from it, the camera won't follow our character, so there is virtually no exploration. After we get to the bench, we sit down and reminisce the years that have passed and the people we knew and lost - All that put into a Dutch song that luckily comes with subtitles.


Simple as it may be, The Graveyard is a breath of fresh air in the world of shoot 'em ups, puzzlers and platformers. Believe it or not, the game is available in both demo and full versions. The full version will set us back $5 and is identical to the demo, except that each time you play the game, the old lady can die. That's pretty much all I can tell you about the full version, since I didn't feel like spending money just to see an old person die.


If you, however, would like to get the full featured version, go to the game's official webpage, choose either the Windows or Mac version and knock yourself out. If you like Tale of Tales' more artsy approach to game design, you could also check out The Path - a horror game like no other.