The Beginner's Guide Reviews
John is unsettled by existential questions
The Beginner's Guide is a poignant and thought-provoking journey into the minds of game developers who are at their core, people with struggles and insecurities of their own. $10 might seem a steep price tag for an hour and a half of playtime without traditional mechanics, goals, or objectives, but if you take a chance you might find yourself moved (and even changed) by the time the credits roll.
The feeling of connection might be an illusion, though, and that tension is what gives The Beginner's Guide its strongest moments. Even as it reaches out from within its prisons, it won't let you forget the bars. If it is a desperate desire to be known and understood, then its intentions come fraught with the same doubts as any authentic relationship.
As much as I didn't feel any profound level of resonance with the content of The Beginner's Guide, I will certainly defend its right to exist. I think that it makes a showing in a side of the industry that doesn't get a lot of attention, and that's a good thing. However, my personal opinion is that there are other games that do a far better job of making that showing, and this includes The Beginner's Guide's immediate predecessor.
Yes, The Beginner's Guide occasionally fumbles its narrative, Wreden sometimes overacts, and the writing can be a little ham-fisted—but the game also provokes incisive, critical thought about the way we read and evaluate games, and does so not by laying out a definitive "message" to be delivered to players, but by prompting us, through play, with open-ended questions.
If you want to play a game, then don't buy this. If you want to experience something, to really feel something and do something new, though... well, you couldn't really spend 90 minutes better.
The Beginner's Guide is more of an interesting experience than a really interesting game. However, if you are looking for something new and fresh, give it a chance.
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