I keep returning to Thirty Flights of Loving, one of my all time favorite video games in the non-linear short story genre. If you haven’t played this yet it’s a quick $5 adventure that can be obtained here. Spoilers ahead.
Thirty Flights of Loving drew me in after the first crash scene, with an injured Anita staring blankly into space while shooting empty rounds from a machine gun. The untold story behind that scene’s moment is shown and almost eclipsed by the literal shell shock of the character.
The scenes shift quite a bit after, but my favorite is the wedding party and the relaxed evening with friends. There’s a surreal and beautiful moment when the guests float into the sky that captures the feeling that everything’s going to be okay.
The most haunting part of the game for me is near the end. I’m riding on a motorcycle with Anita driving, and she turns to look at me with love in her eyes. Everything seems safe, the adventure is won, the past is present, and then the bike drifts into oncoming traffic. I feel like this is a metaphor for my own life in a way; every time I’ve felt secure in my position or proud of something a shoe drops somewhere and I’m pulled away.
The developer commentary is a nice add to the game, though it doesn’t say that much about the depth of these particular moments. It also includes short movies on modeling several of the game’s objects in Blender, which is encouraging to me because I’m learning that software right now.