Before I Forget Review (Xbox Series X|S & PC)

Before I Forget composes a short, subtle, and tenderly bittersweet symphony of tragic melodies and familiar themes, of loneliness, confusion, and of memories that have lost their true meaning. It orchestrates an interlude, though never quite a powerful crescendo to whet the mood and synchronize with the chords. Fear and isolation pluck its strings, and you, being at the front of the ensemble, wax poetic with its unspoken language to decipher the lyrics. Who is Dylan? Where are you? And, more importantly, why can’t you remember?

Alone, and in a colorless world, you open your eyes to an ashen apartment devoid of familiar things and homely comforts. A photograph, an envelope, and a small trinket illuminate the path forward, and without thinking twice, you examine them, remembering small but seemingly crucial details about your past. A blossoming romance; a starry moonlit night; a perfect career; and a home that emits warmth, love and happiness. It all seems perfect, yet something feels out of place. On the outside, it feels like an ordinary day. On the inside, turbulence brews, and questions linger without answers.

A harmonic piano ushers you deeper into the world, yet an ominous black hole prevents you from weaving the memories into a fully comprehensible rhythm. Something isn’t quite right, but you aren’t able to put your finger on it. Dylan is nowhere to be seen, and all that you have is a cloudy memory to guide you and a handful of keepsakes that unveil fickle fragments of a timeline. The color from the world is gone, yet each piece of the puzzle that you find brings just a speck of light back to the canvas. Melodies and memories rebuild the past, yet no amount of searching can answer that ever-looming question: Where is Dylan?

Before I Forget is less of a video game and more of a light visual novel with interactive elements. Like Gone Home or What Remains of Edith Finch, it prefers to tell you a story through brief passages of text, music, and light puzzles. It doesn’t demand a great deal of you; it simply highlights a path, and it allows you to gradually breathe light into a colorless world at your own pace. Looking at an object, for example, unveils a small piece of the story, which in turn adds a fresh splash of color to the room. The more you examine, the clearer the picture becomes.

A linear experience at heart, Before I Forget doesn’t aim to keep you second guessing your whereabouts or aimlessly searching for that next all-important beat. In fact, it forces a habit of giving you a breadcrumb trail to follow. A single piano chord, or a quote, for example, points the way forward and into the next area. It merely falls to you to follow the scent and pick up the pieces en route to the crescendo. Not that there is much of a grand finale to this rather short forty-minute journey, mind you.

Before I Forget is best served as a single-sitting affair. With an apartment, a melody, and an emotional tale about dementia, isolation and conflicting memories, you are given the opportunity to learn all that there is to know about the lives of two childhood sweethearts. A trinket unlocks a passage of time, and another steps in to add color to the scene. The characters are light and without the full weight of a drawn-out backstory. The memories, on the other hand, ferry the journey and provide you with a window to the world. It doesn’t stick around all that long, but if there’s one thing that it does do, it packs a punch and pulls on your heartstrings.

As there isn’t much gameplay to gaze at here, Before I Forget might not appeal to the broader demographic. Given that the entire experience is made up of walking around an apartment, inspecting objects, and taking part in brief interactive mini-games—stargazing with a relative, for example—you’re never really made to go beyond your comfort zone. Like Gone Home, you walk through the corridors, and develop a snapshot of the world and its small cast of characters. Once you locate an item and unlock a brief piece of dialogue, the room finds its natural colors, and the next location becomes available for you to explore.

With themes of dementia and depression at the heart of its narrative, Before I Forget can easily be seen as a rather harrowing reminder that mortality has its limits, its flaws and its consequences. It captures it all rather beautifully, too, given the subject matter. With an aesthetic that feels both vibrant and wholesome, as well as an OST that comes across as both melodic and thought-provoking, the game itself does a brilliant job of making a lasting impression in its short time on the scene. Could it be longer? Sure. Would it benefit from a helping of creative mini-games? Probably. Yet, I can forgive its lack of gameplay, because at the end of the day, it’s the story that matters most here. It’s a little depressing I’ll admit. But then, that’s sort of the point.

Verdict

Before I Forget captures a delicate subject in a most extraordinary light, with melodic themes, beautifully crafted yet vague memories, and a bittersweet tale that pulls on the heartstrings and leans on all of the right chords. While it holds its ground as a rather short and airtight experience that doesn’t involve a lot of gameplay or innovative features, it does find the right balance between being a light interactive game and a stark reminder that mortality is fickle and isn’t to be taken for granted. That, to me, is the making of a good title.

Of course, if you’re looking for a full-fledged game that incorporates vast swathes of puzzles and other challenges, then it’s unlikely that Before I Forget will scratch that itch of yours. If it’s a short, calming, yet emotionally driven interactive tale that tickles your fancy, however, then I strongly recommend taking a moment to breeze through these memories.