Figment - Fighting Your Nightmares

This is, on the surface, a story of Nightmares wreaking havoc in the Mind. Dusty and Piper are tasked to fix the situation, though all that Dusty really wants, is to get his precious scrapbook back. The scrapbook thief, Fear of Loss has taunted us, but escaped closer to the conscious part of the Mind. To get to him, you traverse to Freedom Isles, the creative side of the Mind, chasing Plaque. After that is Spider Queen’s turn, who has taken Clockwork Town, the logical side, as her new nest. You need their masks to travel to the Pathway to consciousness and to catch Fear of Loss.

The art is whimsical and something that I think will pull many people to try this game. Freedom Isles is full of colour and nature. This makes a great contrast to what the Plaque is doing, spreading brown clouds everywhere. Clockwork Town on the other hand is filled with mechanical stuff, having lots of gears everywhere. Still, even this side has beautiful colours, shifting from Freedom Isles’ light blues and greens to deeper oranges and blues.

The game has seemingly two sides. There’s this super whimsical and childlike wonder in its world and characters that I loved. You can knock on people’s doors to get some dialogue from the residents of the weird houses all around the Mind. Many of these interactions made me laugh with their jokes or outright absurdity. Who minds imminent doom if the telly works? I also loved the music. It’s fun, catchy, and compliments what you see on screen. The Nightmares all have their songs that they sing during boss battles. My favourite is the song from the Spider Queen, and it has been playing in my head ever since I heard it (in a good way, I promise).

On the other hand, there is this very adult feel in the game. Dusty is portrayed as jaded, forgotten and pushed aside, and now very reluctant to help others. The story also is emotional and adult. The game starts with a glimpse of the real world, a family in a car crash. That caught me off guard, having no knowledge of the game before playing. Really fast this was washed away with the whimsy of the world that you got to explore in. I had some thoughts about it though, especially when collecting the Remembranes, memories of the Mind. The third act in the Pathway to the conscious part of the Mind made me finally realize the bigger picture fully. Here I’ll just say, that the game reminds us of the importance of cherishing our time with the people we care about without letting fear taint it. I think this message is important and one we should all remember.

The game is a short experience which I think is refreshing. It is how long it needs to be and does not try to stretch itself with filler. The gameplay is solving puzzles and fighting enemies with your trusty sword. I felt that the puzzles were mostly on the sweet spot of not too obvious or “I really have no idea what to do”. These kinds of puzzles make you feel accomplished when you figure them out.

Figment was a whimsical journey where I had truly fun. At the same time, it managed to remind me of things important in life that in all the noise can sometimes be forgotten. This game stays with you in many ways even after you have completed it and I think it’s an experience I can truly recommend to anyone into puzzle/indie games.

Basic Information:

Developer: Bedtime Digital Games
Publisher: Bedtime Digital Games
Release date: 22.09.2017
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PlayStation 4/5, Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS
Genres: action-adventure, puzzle
PEGI: 12

Photos: screenshots from Figment (Bedtime Digital Games 2017), taken by the author

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Janette Mäkinen

Achievement hunter, player of games, and collector of all things gaming.
On a battle of my time, gaming has definetely won. On most evenings, you can find me enjoing a good single player game, or playing some fps multiplayer with friends.

#puzzle #mental health #musical #Action-Adventure #Indie