Bientôt l'été - The Irony is that You're Playing by Yourself

I love works of art and can appreciate art for art's sake. But as I watched the videos for this supposed game experience, a term that I use quite loosely, blurs the lines between that which we can call a game. Bientôt l'été translates to "soon the summer", which sounds appropriate because you start of on a beach. As the gameplay videos say, you choose your gender, then you go searching for your internet lover.

In the game description on Steam's page the first thing it says is: Bientôt l'été is a videogame for two players. Yet you will almost always be by yourself or waiting for another player. You will walk along the beach by yourself, save for a flock of seagulls adding background noise. You will then reach a house or some kind of indoor space where you will wait to play chess with another player, and wait, and wait.

For a game that's supposed to be about two players you're often alone. This is a truly single player experience that probably had higher expectations of it's goals. Truth is that if you're looking to experience this game with another player you'll be very disappointed. I've never seen a game that wants to be multiplayer but makes no effort to entice people to join. You're left with a bland experience thinking; thank goodness the real internet is chock full of people you can interact with every minute of the day from around the world. Or maybe go and take a walk on a real beach and see other people.

Unfortunately, this game takes relatively pleasant social moments, walking on the beach, playing a game of chess and strips away the very social aspect it wants players to feel. Where games like The Sims, Second Life and other multiplayer have set the standard for social interaction this game fails to deliver the basic of what it promises, a two player experience.

For good measure I played this game with both male and female avatars. As the male I was treated to a mansion like space to interact with in the distance. As I got closer to the mansion I noticed a red window. Naturally seeing a splash of color got me curious so I walked up against the wall hoping to interact with this mysterious red window. I closed my eyes, because that's what the down key does and decide to interact with a tree in the distance. When I finished looking at the tree it put me right back at the red window wall. Only this time I can't interact with anything. I also can't move backwards, can't turn because I'm up against a wall forcing me to quit this experience in frustration.

Perhaps Bientôt l'été would find more success in an art gallery where a smaller cluster of people can experience it together but for mainstream gaming there's just not many people who will get it or have the patience to wait for something that just never comes. Even the AI simulation of a stand in lover during the chess sequence seemed to lose interest and just kept rambling on about nothing long after I stopped talking. I wish I could have had a better experience with this game. I gave it a chance hoping that there would be something surreal going on but for a game of two players you're just playing by yourself.

Gameplay: (T__T) - I can't judge gameplay as there is no game. Why this is being sold on a video game website is beyond me.

Graphics: (-__-) -  Its nothing spectacular and you're mostly drowning in white when you're not staring at some obscure chessboard talking to the AI about nothing.

Controls: (>__<) - While this game does have controller support this suffers from poor design. Walking up to a wall and not being able to turn or walk backwards sounds like a bad design problem. One that should have been anticipated by developers as if the character is stuck you pretty much have to restart the game.

Overall: (ノ｀Д´ )ノ彡┻┻ (flipping over table) - I can't in good conscience post the link to the buy page. You should not buy this game. The only reason I played this game was because it was feature with 4 others in an Indie Royale game bundle. If I paid full price or even half I would have wanted my money back. Instead, go outside take a walk on a real beach. Find one of those homeless looking dudes who'll play chess with you for a dollar in the park. Head to Facebook or some internet forum of your choice and start an online relationship with an actual person. Those things would be more fun in real life than this game could ever make them.