Perfect Tides Reviews

There are a lot of point and click adventure games that serve as period pieces, but [i]Perfect Tides[/i] is one of the better ones. It’s a warts-and-all portrayal of the turn of the millennium with internet culture blossoming and lots of hateful sentiment in general culture. Mara is a great main character– a very messy main character trying to figure out life when most people seem to hate her. The puzzles can be a little frustrating but one of the perks of this game is while you’re wandering the island finding out what to do, you find NPCs to chat with and get a good sense of what Mara’s world is like. This game uses aimlessness very well, not exactly telling the player what needs to be done to forward the plot but allowing the player to roam and explore the neighbourhood. The narrative is challenging and oftentimes dark, but it balances the trauma and grit with humour, humanity and occasional joy. I came away from this game knowing that I played a classic point-and-click with a splendid story that might not have a tight structure, but has lots to say anyway. I definitely recommend this one.

I'd wanted to play Perfect Tides since it was announced, but I put off buying/playing it for nearly 2 years because I was worried it would be triggering for me. Turns out I was right! It's a fun game, though, and something that I would find cathartic in the way The Edge of Seventeen (2016) or Bojack Horseman is, but the fact that *I'M* the one playing it removes a layer of emotional distance for me that's too much. I got to the end of Summer Day 1 when it became too much. I was 8 in the year 2000, but I still remember dial-up. I grew up playing point-n-click games, and I, too, once fell in love with someone I never met online. I struggled making friends in high school, and finding a community that mattered to me in an insufferably boring small town. When I became an adult, I came to realize that the place you grow up in can be just as traumatic as the people you grow up with, and after my own dad died and I was forced to move back to that place, my mental health backslid, all my friends had moved away, and here I am, playing a game that reminds me of all the worst parts of my childhood and all the things I've lost. I'm giving this game a positive review because it deserves it (and because I don't want to be the asshole who ruins its nearly 100% positive rating), but I don't know if I'll ever finish it.