The Biggest Challenge In This Game Is Preventing Your Character From Committing Suicide
Actual Sunlight is not a happy game.
In fact, I’d caution folks sensitive about suicide and depression against playing it. It’ll trigger you, it’ll punch you in the gut.
The game is an interactive story about a man called Evan Winters. He works at some corporation, doing who knows what, really—it’s one of those nebulous startups where you’re not really selling anything.
He lives on his own and the most he can look forward to is eating out with his parents, getting wasted at a bar by himself, hiding from reality by playing video games, or masturbating.
That, or playing out fantasy scenarios in his head.
You play out a couple of days in his life, going through his usual routine at home and at work. You’ll interact with people and with objects, but most of the game is largely text-heavy.
As someone that lives with depression, much of what the game touches upon felt gut-wrenchingly familiar. The way you start living in your head. The way you try to fix things by indulging in consumerism, as if buying stuff will fix you—as if merely owning THINGS will change your reluctance/inability to actually do much with yourself.
Like I said: it’s stark, stark stuff. I found the self-defeating hyper-rationalization particularly apt, though admittedly the writing can lose its thread at times.
Still, the game is worth experiencing, especially for those of you curious as to what types of complex subjects games can tackle. Some of you might even wonder why this is a game of all things, but the choices at the end make it clear why—so stick around, if you try it.
