An understanding look at dementia through videogames: Before I Forget
I love video games that take me out of the classic, of what we are used to look at in this industry and make me vibrate with proposals that I would never have thought that could become a video game, and here we are, with experiences as brutal and raw as Before I Forget, which invites us on a journey through the human mind to give more context about a condition as terrible as dementia, the belongings and the most intimate memories of a person, with a message that is made known in a direct way without too many twists and with a sobriety that scares at least in indie games, each frame has a meaning, a deeper look at the very concept of what an individual is. How does dementia affect the way we look at life? 3-Fold Games has made a story that although it can be deep and extensive, it is made to be understood in a sublime way with a special emphasis on its narrative and the way it tells its story.
Living with the disease
The game may last only 1 hour but it does not waste time at any time and from the first bars of the game we understand perfectly what it is about, we control a patient who is experiencing the first symptoms of early dementia in a lonely apartment, from there we see her day to day and how she is changing her routines, her memory and her memories, we can go from a simple memorization of a shopping list to the memories of a date in a moment but we always keep in mind that not everything is what we see, in fact very little is reality and the answers that our protagonist seeks dance as her memories decay, it is a journey that is equally tragic and visually beautiful thanks to the creation of scenes that contrary to what it may seem, makes you see the disease as a villain that slowly wears you down but also makes it more human and understandable thanks to its dialogues and its staging.
The first actions of the game are spent collecting objects that light up with color in the scenes and unlock vague new memories to Sunita (our protagonist) that we can capture with the help of our camera to not lose the "color" of each of the memories, each piece builds a narrative and helps us remember our daily routine and the moments of happiness that we live, the construction is simple, at times the soundtrack stands out a lot as well as the ingenious scenes that we put but in essence the story is unique, simple enough for players less committed to this type of experience to finish it and deep enough to bring a tear to our eye at the end of it all.
Before I Forget does not need great technical displays to communicate its story but it ends up putting us in situations ranging from the most colorful to the most gloomy that we can find, in each new victory we will always have the "memory" that our memory is gradually failing us but one more day, a caress of the sun or perhaps a short walk reminds us that Sunita is alive, the photograph ends up being one of my favorite parts of the game because even if at some point we panic and don't quite remember a moment we will always have a photograph to bring color back to our actions, it is a message that demystifies dementia praecox patients while inviting understanding, and that to me is the most beautiful message a game can give.
