Simulation games have been a hallmark of casual gaming for years. Whether it’s racing sims, dating sims or farming sims, there’s no shortage of games simulating real life. In these games you’re often managing your sleep and hunger, or perhaps you’re managing a team of people, or maybe even plant growth on your property. Simulation games work because you’re literally gamifying real life situations. It goes without saying that The Sims series famously does this better and more comprehensively than its contemporaries. The enjoyment comes out of how productive you can be with the time and resources that you have. These games tend to throw narrative to the wayside as the story is generally the least interesting thing about sim-style games. Germany’s Osmotic Studios decided to take a completely different approach to the simulation genre. Instead of focusing on building homes or managing teams, the player focuses on rebuilding community and morale after tragedy. A simulation game that has a deeply moving narrative – something completely out of place for the genre.
In Closer The Distance you play as Angela, older sister to Conny and daughter to Axel and Pia – a small family in the tight-knit community known as Yesterby. The twist is… Angela is dead. Our story begins with Angela not making it home for dinner. Conny, the younger sister, is trying to keep her parents calm despite the uncertainty of her sister’s whereabouts. Eventually the cops show up at the front door and relay the horrible news to the family of an accident involving their daughter. Conny realizes she can hear her sister’s voice and is able to communicate with her from beyond. Yesterby is already reeling from a recent death and the news about Angela makes things more tense and morose. It is up to Conny and Angela to make sure that the town doesn’t fall apart and is able to bounce back from the recent tragedies.
Yesterby is the definition of a very small community. The dozen or so inhabitants all know each other extremely well and are all heavily impacted by the death of Angela. Each character has several bars that need to be filled in order to maintain their sanity as well as their comfort. There are typical simulation game bars such as sleep and hunger, but there are also more esoteric bars such as recognition, harmony and empathy. These more intricate concepts are invaluable to the human experience and necessary to trudge through the taxing process of grief. Characters also have wants and needs that they need to accomplish in order to feel fulfilled.
The more you help somebody, the more they open up. Once you get someone to open up a little more, you can manage them as well with Angela. Soon enough you will be able to manage just about everyone in the town. Angela essentially becomes the community’s mental health micromanager. My biggest issue with Closer The Distance is that this can become quite exhausting. Thankfully you are able to pause the clock and do a full look at the map to see where every single person is, as well as what decisions they can make. But doing this simultaneously for 14 people can feel cumbersome. I also found myself missing important character story beats as there are often multiple impactful conversations happening at the same time. This is likely a game that you would need to play more than once in order to see every single decision to its conclusion. However, given how emotional the story is, you might not want to hangout in Yesterby more than you have to.
The presentation in Closer The Distance is absolutely top-notch stuff. The hushed autumnal colour palette makes Yesterby feel cold, yet, inviting place. The faceless characters feel like wooden figures in a big diorama-like town. Everyone has really expressive animations so you can tell how someone is doing based on how they walk or carry themselves. Buildings can become transparent as you have the ability to phase the camera into any building you see. You can find townsfolk in private settings who are maybe having an internal dialogue about an interaction they had that day. You can also find people having tense conversations about how maybe the town is taking things a little too far with the grieving. You are often hearing conversations that you shouldn’t be and that’s a major reason this game feels so human. The performances here are also stellar, especially given the subject matter. Every moment of Closer The Distance feels like you are being punched in the gut. The actors deliver such emotionally heavy performances that had me wishing the controller had a dedicated ‘hug’ button.
Closer The Distance takes a genre famous for relaxing and fun gameplay and turns it on its head. The atmosphere and presentation are absolutely perfect and really sell just how impactful things can be in a small community. Grief is something that is handled differently by everybody. You can’t make everybody happy in Yesterby – just like in real life. Closer The Distance is beautiful, poignant, and heartbreaking. It is absolutely worth your time and your money.
