Are you sick of all the modern technology where you need an app for everything on the latest iPhone? If you crave a new friend that you can AIM in a blast from the past, then "Emily Is Away" is the perfect game for you. "Emily Is Away" is a free game available on Steam that was developed and published by Kyle Seeley. It is a short, casual indie game, and this treasure of a game is well worth checking it out, as I elaborate on below.
1. Strong story.
Even though the screen essentially appears the same through the entire game, you will get sucked into the story. The story is about the relationship of your character and Emily over the course of five years, from high school graduation in 2002 to college graduation in 2006. Their conversations are over instant messenger and you always look forward to the next blip of text next to emerly35, Emily’s username. While the conversations may seem run of the mill at first, you will quickly realize all of the subtext behind everything that is typed, and that sometimes the most potent pieces of information are the things that go unsaid. Though the story is not very long and you could play through the entire story for the first time in less than an hour, it delivers a powerful plot that you will remember long after you play with believable twists and turns. When you get to the end, you will be satisfied, though your heart may feel heavy.
2. Well-developed characters.
You never see any of the characters, but you learn so much about them that they feel like people that you would have met in high school or college. There’s the guy you don’t really know who’s cool because he’s in a band, the person who had a family member die, and the classmate you could see yourself with to give a few examples. Through talking with Emily, you get to know about her personality and sense of humor, her favorite bands, how she feels about herself and others, and what things push her buttons. Although not much is said about the minor characters that get a quick mention in conversation, you can learn more about them and get a glimpse into their private lives through their profiles. You can only chat with Emily, but if you look at your contacts every year, you can get a status update on the other individuals in Emily’s life and your own.
3. Learning more about yourself.
While you can put in your own name to have Emily address you directly and you come up with your own username, you assume a character that is not quite yourself. Through your conversations, you learn more about how the two of you would have been throughout high school, and the things that you have done and the people that you hang out with when you are away from the keyboard. Some of the most important things that your character reveals about themselves is what they erase and change, which is probably my favorite, most heartbreaking feature of the game. You come to understand just how important your relationship with Emily is, getting you more and more invested in the story to the point where you might just forget that Emily is part of a computer game.
4. Replayablity.
Just like when you’re texting a friend and you wonder if a different response would’ve changed the course of the conversation, the same will happen when messaging with emerly35. More often than not, the decisions you make can change some of the key plot elements that bring about the ending. One of my friends and I played the game together for the third and fourth times a few weeks ago and we got into some conversations with Emily that we had never had before and it was often a struggle to pick one of the three responses. Because the game is so short, you won’t feel like it would be a burden to go back and see what would have happened if you had said something different. I recommend playing it again with a friend, because not only will you get to know Emily more but the friend by your side as well.
5. Secret icons.
Another way to get new and humorous dialog is through secret icons. When you look at your buddy icons, you’ll notice that there is a question mark tag where the secret icons will go. When you enter certain words as your username, you can unlock the new icons, that Emily will have clever and funny ways of responding to them, making replays even more fun. I won’t go into detail about the secret icons so that you can discover them on your own, but I will give you the tip that the Steam achievements are a good place to go for hints.
6. Nostalgic atmosphere.
If you used Windows in the early 2000s like I did, this game will bring back an enormous amount of nostalgia. The rough icons and graphics that would get polished over the years, the start-up jingle, the pixilated text, and the white noise hums and clicks that the computer would make are back in the best way possible. All the little details remind me of being a six-year old using the family desktop computer in a big blue office chair, positioned with my dad on his computer to the right of me and his rainbow floppy disks and all my computer game jewel cases on the shelves to my left. The healthy dose of nostalgia further show just how immersive the game is, bringing you a decade or so back in time to the perfect setting for this relationship.
7. Combining cultures.
Even with the flashback to earlier technological models, there is a fun mix of both old and new cultures. This especially comes through the buddy icons, that sport references to movies, games and bands. Most of the movies have become classics that you forgot came out so long ago but still remember fondly, like “The Incredibles” or the earlier "Harry Potte"r movies. Some games are new titles that match the atmosphere, such as "Undertale," while others are franchises that have remained beloved over the years, like the "Legend of Zelda." It most fun to have conversations with Emily about the bands that have continued to produce new music over the years, so while you might have listened to the latest hit single from Coldplay, you are talking about the most popular song from over ten years ago like it’s the newest thing.
8. Intuitive design.
This game is super easy to pick up and play, feeling natural to navigate and suiting the atmosphere of the game. You type randomly on the keyboard to type up your responses to emerly35 so you feel like you really are the one responding while you are watching your choices unfold before you. The menus are clearly labeled and if you were able to get the computer to start the game, you are more than qualified to explore all the drop menus and other windows you can open to discover more about the other characters in the game. Because everything is so easy to understand, the player’s focus can be to explore all the aspects of the game and through themselves into their relationship with Emily.
