Welcome to Elk is a new narrative driven adventure game, developed and published by Triple Topping and available on Steam and Xbox.
I knew nothing about this game prior to starting my review playthrough, the first time I started playing, I'll be honest my heart sank a little.
It looked like one of "those" games. An indie title trying too hard to be quirky and different. Like that lad around town who went to art college, always wore knitted fingerless gloves no matter the weather, and smelled faintly of digestive biscuits and oily scalp.
Despite forming this preconception within seconds of gameplay I was so very happy to be proved wrong. Fast-forward another 10 minutes and I am completely engrossed, moreover utterly invested in the goings on of the Island called Elk.
So what's it all about?
I was genuinely intrigued to find out that Welcome to Elk, an adventure game set on a fictional island with fictional characters, is actually based on several true stories and tall tales.
You play as Frigg, a young carpenter who has decided to trade in her city life for an apprenticeship in a small town. When she arrives in Elk, Frigg worries that the slower pace of life will be boring (they don’t even have the internet), but quickly discovers nothing could be further from the truth!
As soon as the game begins, after an extremely brief island orientation, you discover that you arrived on Elk in the middle of a special day. A celebration for a dead man, that no one seemed to like, who owned a brewery. So where better to hold the event than in the islands cozy pub, what better way to celebrate? Beer!
The game features a lot of beer, this is possibly the catalyst for how some of the true stories the game was based around, came to pass. It's almost definitely facilitated a certain amount of embellishment surrounding the tall tales.
It's here that you are introduced to the inhabitants and cast of this narrative driven adventure.
It's with hindsight that I can now see why the characters were so compelling and lovingly created, because they are based around real people. They're so well rounded and multidimensional that you can't help be invested in what they have to say and the story that they drag you into.
You can read more about the making of the game, the true stories and people behind them, that inspired the game on the Triple Topping website.
I'm not going into any story spoilers in the review, suffice to say it's a wonderful adventure full of interconnected, funny, dark and bittersweet tales. Presented with a really unique art style that compliments the narrative perfectly.
Its a short but wonderful experience that I'm so glad I got to play through. I couldn't recommend "Welcome to Elk" more highly. Definitely one of those games that you need to play.
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