Alone and Confused

A Day Without Me is a puzzle adventure game from Gamecom Team on that I played on the Nintendo Switch.

I would like to explain to you what “A Day Without Me” is all about, but to be honest I came away from this game a bit confused as to what I just witnessed. I’m not sure if it was a lack of interpretation, or if there are some regional context I am missing out on, but the story did not really connect for me. This is not to say that I didn’t enjoy the ride, it was just very strange.

In “A Day Without Me” you wake up to find that everyone else in the town you live has vanished. The goal is to uncover the mystery of why this has happened by going around town solving very obscure puzzles. I believe I spent most of the 2 hour runtime just trying to find where to go next as there is no clear direction or prompt as to where to go next. This wouldn’t have bothered me had the town not been so BIG with different paths opening up after each puzzle. This does, however, reinforce the feeling of being alone, which is done very well in this game.

As I stated before, the puzzles in this game don’t really make sense to me. They are well designed gameplay wise, but the rhyme and reason for each escapes me. At one point you are placing random objects in a pentagram in your living room just to exit your house, and the next you are playing a deadly game of hopscotch where a single mistake will light the player on fire! The most confusing for me was the slide puzzle. I’ll go ahead and recount my experience just to help anyone else that gets stuck on this one.

After the 3rd or so puzzle, the town opens up and you can pretty much go to any part of the map. Very near to the last puzzle finished is a playground where you can interact with the various equipment. To complete this part, you have to pick up a nearby soccer ball and interact with the slide, which causes a small puddle of blood to appear at the bottom. Afterward you then have to interact with the Trampoline which will give you a vision of where to go next. There is no indication whatsoever that you need to do these steps in this order, and I ended up walking around town for a good half hour just to find a way to progress.

Graphically I really enjoyed this title. The gameplay is seen from a top down isometric view and the overall art style reminded me of an late Playstation / early PS2 game. The player animations are will done and the town itself is visually appealing.

I don’t want my misgivings about the puzzles take away any interest in this game. I’m happy that I tried it out, but I believe one play is good enough for me. If this strikes you as worth a try, go for it! It IS enjoyable, but I found it hard to get through personally.

Maybe the experience will be different for you!