Fairy Tale Spotlight: We Were Here (Series)

[Blog contains spoilers.]

A new game review this week! There is a wonderful game series called "We Were Here" released for various systems. There are three of them so far: We Were Here, Were Were Here Too, and We Were Here Together. All three games are worth playing, although I'll get into some of the faults, of which there are a couple worth mentioning.

The concept of the We Were Here series is that you and a friend of yours (over online multiplayer) end up in an ancient mansion located in the middle of an arctic wasteland. Once inside, you both get separated, but you can still talk to each other over hand-held radios. The game from here is a long series of puzzles where both of you must work together to figure out how to solve them.

Part of the puzzle is in one room, and the other part is in your companion's room. You have to communicate without seeing what the other person sees in order to find a way through. The idea is to meet each other at the end and... hopefully... get out together.

In most multiplayer games, you always see the person you are playing with. In We Were Here, the other person is physically there, but always behind a wall. There may occasionally be a moment where you can see each other through a small opening, but the truth is that you won't be seeing each other very often throughout the game. Your radios are the real link.

The story of the game is exciting and often spooky. There's a strange magical presence in these mansions. The concept of demons possessing inanimate objects is a common theme between the games. You will often find yourself mixed up in their politics which does not feel good at all. It's downright frightening.

Some of these puzzles can lead to your death if panic sets in and you are unable to calmly communicate with your partner.

"The well is filling up with water!" I yell out over my radio. "What do I do?!"

"Do you see anything on the walls of the well?" my partner asks.

"There's a bunch of symbols but I don't know what they mean. The water is up to my knees!"

"I've got symbols on my end. Tell me what they are and I'll see if I can help you."

Although this particular puzzle was harrowing and scary, my partner found a way to get the walls of the well to rotate which formed a ladder to the top. The water was up to my neck before this happened, but we still got the job done. If I had not been able to keep it together and talk to my partner, I would have just drowned, the puzzle would reset (with a different solution), and we'd be doing it all over again. The game can be pretty unforgiving with failure.

I still heavily recommend these games, if anything for how the bond between you and your online friend will so greatly strengthen from the experience; however, the games do have some sad flaws that you should be aware of. First of all, the radios almost never work right. Sometimes our voices just get broken up to the point where we can't hear one another. This is particularly bad in the timed trap rooms. We had to resort to using Discord to communicate while we played the game and simply ignore the radios altogether.

The second problem was had to do with the ending of We Were Here Together (the third game). In the first two games, there was always a chance that you could escape with your partner. It wasn't easy, but it was possible. In the third game, they make you believe that you can do this, but they won't ever let you do it. It gives you a choice to sacrifice either yourself or your friend to stop a demon, but whatever you choose, it does the opposite.

My friend chose to sacrifice himself to save me, but after making his decision, the knife turned on me anyways. This made his selfless decision meaningless. It is probably the worst moment in the game series' history. But the experience before that moment was brilliant. The reason I still recommend the games is because so much of the enjoyment came from my relationship with my friend. That was still there, and we could even agree that the ending was trash. We came out of it with a stronger relationship than when we started, and that's pretty impressive.

The We Were Here series is available on a number of systems. The first one (We Were Here) is a 100% free game. I recommend you try them out with a friend and see where the journey takes you.

Thank you for reading my blog! Did you enjoy it? Either way, you can comment below, or you can email me at tkwadeauthor@gmail.com. You can also visit my website at www.tkwade.com. Check out my books! Thanks!