Closer the Distance Steam Charts & Stats

Do I recommend this game? Yes....and...(maybe spoilers) It is gorgeous, immersive, tragic, and somewhat difficult emotionally. I truly enjoyed the narrative of grief and how it can affect everyone in a small and close community. Compared to my own personal experiences with grief and losing close immediate family, many aspects of this game felt true to life. I enjoyed that there were things going on in the village simultaneous to their attempts to navigate their grief (like the boat lodge), this is just like real life, when we can't control the things happening around us despite our grief. I found myself looking forward to playing the game and finding out how I can help the entire village grow around their loss. However......some of the characters and the way the dialog is written had me VERY frustrated. I honestly felt like the game was pushing me to dislike some of them sometimes (mostly a primary example: PIA---just one of the things, Angie is your angel but Conny is your...nothing??? Found myself having beef with Pia the most). Again, having experienced grief personally, some of the things they say to each other were kind-of wild. I can't imagine speaking to someone like that, even in a time of crippling grief, when all they were offering me is care and support, whether or not they are a stranger (example: Pia meeting with Laul the first time). There were other points of the game that felt rushed with the time. I had hoped that the game could be played all the way through and not being limited on time, and unfortunately missed some things because I didn't realize they were on a deadline (example: Pia/Galina and the church). I was super bummed when the game just ended suddenly? There were other aspects of controlling characters that was frustrating sometimes too. With Conny, there were times when she wanted to be left alone and I couldn't really do anything with anyone else. It was then just watching the days go by in the village until I could do more, or waiting for something else to happen. I also don't know if I did something incorrectly, but I was hoping that we might be able to control more characters. I'm going to play through again and see if my decisions make changes, but it was kind-of a bummer not being able to immerse myself with the entire village, rather than only 5 people (I had Conny, Zek, Galina, River, and Laul). For example, why couldn't I control Jasper to maybe have him talk to Pia about the boat lodge? Overall, I'd give the game 6.5*/10*. It is visually beautiful, very moving, but also a little confusing and frustrating. I guess that's just like grief, isn't it?

An absolute marvel of a game. It touched me deeply. Make more games like this please. Maybe a tad less sad. Give me a story with a fully happy ending one day ? But just : make more games like this, please. Story-full games are so rare these days. And this one is amazing. Also when it comes to the creative gameplay system. But most importantly for me : it is a wonderful story. Now I am going to cry a little bit.

Touching, a wonderful connecting game that's right on the money with it's emotional beats and excellent music/voice acting.

Definitely would recommend to anyone who enjoys story telling games. This one is rather short but very sweet and 100% worth the price.