Elegy for a Dead World
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Critic Reviews for Elegy for a Dead World
Elegy for a Dead World makes good on its title: it offers us dead worlds, filled with the debris of imagined and vanished civilizations. Through the game's scenes you walk alone, under the dread emptiness of outer space, all that harrowing solitude. And yet, as you write and send that writing out into the ether in search of a reader, you may well find contact and connection. If others read your work, your observations, your story, your sense and if they find truth or solace in your words, here is a framework designed to let you know, in turn, that you are not alone. In this sense, it is truly a game about humans' desire to write.
Elegy for a Dead World is an intriguing and attractive creation tool that fills a highly specific, highly underserved niche.
As it stands, it's just neat, which is not a winning endorsement for spending your money.
Creative writing game is all about tapping out your own strange tales against a backdrop of alien planets
Elegy For a Dead World uses writing as a mechanic, but if you're not a writer you're not likely to find much to enjoy in its three poetry-inspired worlds.
The variety and quality of stories written by the community playing Elegy for a Dead World demonstrates the game's success at enabling its players to write effectively. Writing is so much more difficult than waggling a joystick or pressing buttons, and yet Elegy for a Dead World makes writing accessible to just about anyone who has the heart, and the courage, to try.
I wouldn't recommend Elegy to anyone but folks who actually want to take the time to write. Though some creative types will question the need for writing prompts, the fact remains that sometimes all you need is a good starting point.
Elegy For A Dead World is a great provocation with some wonderful ideas behind it, but I'm not sure where the draw is after the first fifteen minutes. It is a game that could be wonderful with the inclusion of local or networked multiplayer (co-writing about these worlds would be magical) or a little more direction from the designers. That said, as it stands it is merely a set of good-to-great ideas that cohere in a form that failed to capture my imagination.