Making Friends
HIGH Creepy (but beautiful) aesthetic.
LOW The physics puzzles.
WTF If everyone is dead, why do I need organs for my new friend?
TRANSCRIPT:
Hi everyone! Eugene Sax here with another review from GameCritics.com.
Loneliness can do a lot to a person. Those who are most affected can feel as though everything is a chore, and if it progresses, it can spiral into depression. However, it can also spur someone to do something incredible, that sense willing them forward. In this case, Birth does seem to hint at the latter while guiding the player through relaxing puzzles and soothing music.
Birth is a puzzler where players explore a world filled with humanoid creatures with birdlike skulls for heads. Players will take control of one of these creatures who has a single desire — to build a partner. To do this, they need to amass a collection of bones and organs in order to create this new individual. In order to accomplish this, players will travel around a small town filled with decrepit creatures similar to the protagonist while finding puzzles in places like coffee shops, bakeries, and laundromats. Birth doesn’t give hints for any of the puzzles, but most are designed in such a way that help is rarely needed.
The puzzles range from small interactive scenes like clicking open an egg to reveal a clue, to minor brain teasers like organizing banana slices in a specific order on a piece of toast. There are a couple of physics puzzles as well, and these don’t fare as well as the others. For example, one has the player pouring rocks into a small jar. If players move the cursor too fast, the rocks launch into the air.
Apart from the puzzles, I imagine that players will be fascinated with the imagery in Birth — a strange mix of simultaneous decay and beauty. All of the characters are made of bones, with open eye sockets and gaunt features. Creepy, yes… but friendly at the same time because every character acts like a normal person — drinking coffee, sleeping, reading, or just sitting together and enjoying each others’ company.
This is an important observation, as most characters seem to be doing something with someone else — which emphasizes the point at the start. The player character is lonely, and surrounded by characters who are together. It’s relatable to see that everyone seems to have someone, and wanting to share in that same feeling. Thinking about how the world has changed since the pandemic, Birth hit me more strongly than I expected, as it brought back the time when being around other people was something we couldn’t do. It also reminded me of being a child and moving to a new school filled with that loneliness of not knowing anyone while so many others were so familiar with each other.
Birth is a short, sweet, and wholly unique game that greatly enjoyed. Its relatable narrative, simple premise and clever puzzles had me simply enjoying its world for a while. I urge everyone to give it a try.
For me: Birth gets 8.5 body parts out of 10.
Disclosures: This game is developed by Madison Karrh and published by Madison Karrh and Wings Interactive. It is currently available on PC, XBO/X/S, and Switch. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 3 hours of play were spent playing the game, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.
Parents: According to the ESRB, Birth is rated E10+ and contains Mild Blood and Use of Tobacco. There are some images that may not be the most pleasant to look at (a rat with ribs showing, opening a wound in an arm to get a key, etc.) but it’s not gruesome, and there is no gore. It feels like looking at a medical textbook. There’s no foul language or text.
Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes.
Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: There is text in-game, but this text is not resizable. Audio mostly serves aesthetic purposes and is not needed for gameplay. The game is fully accessible.
Remappable controls: Controls are not remappable. There is no control diagram. Players use the mouse to click and drag across the screen.
While Sonic and Street Fighter were great places to start, his first love was Final Fantasy X when his dad bought a PS2. Ever since, that love for gaming has evolved -- there are a number of game worlds out there, and he intends to explore them all. RPG to horror, platformers to casual and everything in between -- if it’s available, he’ll play it.
While his time is short between writing reviews, tabletop gaming, and attempting to start a cheesecake business, he has caught all 806 pokemon and can speedrun Star Fox 64 in less than 40 minutes. He’s always looking for new things to try and new challenges to conquer. You can find him on Twitter -- @eugene_sax.
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