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Scotland. The ultimate frontier. Not less than, so far as video games go. Regardless of many video games being made in and concerning the superb north, only a few truly symbolize its pure surprise with out additionally that includes an embarrassing stereotype of haggis-eating, ginger-bearded, tartan-clad males, and/or clobbering the English (though we do deserve that final one).
A Highland Song, the newest providing from the narrative recreation wizards at Inkle, steps flippantly in to proper this unsuitable. Its mountains and its music circulate like honey, exhibiting a facet of the highlands that the majority of us hardly ever get to see with out taking an extended prepare up north. And also you, as the teenager runaway Moira, are tasked with exploring this daunting mountain vary with one objective: to get to the ocean.
Moira is a typical teenager, which means she desires to place as a lot distance between her and her mam as doable. Her ticket to freedom comes within the type of a letter from her uncle Hamish, who lives in a lighthouse simply over the opposite facet of about two dozen hills and mountains, summoning her to return go to earlier than Beltane (Gaelic Might Day) in a few week’s time. Most of A Highland Song is about climbing up, down, round, and thru these superbly painted mountains, all of which must be mapped, named, and topped by Moira with no matter treasures she has handy.
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For those who’ve performed Inkle’s 80 Days, this may increasingly sound acquainted. Get from X to Y in Z variety of days, discover fascinating story tidbits as you go, and check out to not die alongside the way in which. In a way, it is a direct descendant of 80 Days, and you’ll see a whole lot of similarities as you wind your method round this stretch of granite, heather and gorse. However 80 Days is about two adults spanning the globe to search out fame and success; A Highland Song is about one younger woman strolling to the sting of her tiny world and discovering herself.
Climbing these mountains isn’t any simple activity, even for somebody with expertise and tools, and Moira has neither. Her little lungs cannot deal with climbing a sheer cliff, so it is advisable discover one other method. Her small palms will lose their grip as you try and drop down a steep drop, and he or she’ll typically fall and graze her knee, scrape her toe, or bend her elbow, taking precious chunks off her well being bar. If she will be able to’t discover wherever comfy and sheltered to sleep — a bothy, a shed, or a cavemouth will do — that very same well being bar will shrink in measurement, and for those who’re caught out in a rainstorm, it’s going to drain slowly however continually, limiting what number of errors you may make.
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Fortunately, you may discover maps to shortcuts alongside the way in which which you may must scale the closest peak to pin down. It is somewhat take a look at of cartography, matching hill silhouettes to their simplified variations on these scraps of paper, checking that the landmarks line up good. These shortcuts are your saviours, permitting you to skip tough sections of the hillsides and shorten your journey to make it to the lighthouse in time.
However till you may have a big variety of these maps and pinpoint the shortcuts, you may need to do issues the exhausting method. And it’s exhausting — there are problem settings, however even the mildest one is punishing sufficient to fray your nerves at instances. You may be forgiven if, like us, you domesticate a way of being a frightened dad or mum as you watch Moira tumble down unfastened scree, hearken to her nervous cries of ache, and listen to her panting for air as she pulls her fragile physique up a vertical rockface. “Mum’s gonnae kill me,” she’ll say, and you may nod in settlement. “I am gonnae die out right here!”
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Bu Inkle’s energy has all the time been its narrative, and we discovered ourselves eagerly awaiting all of those story threads to be tied up right into a neat bow, solely to be somewhat dissatisfied. These shortcut maps trace at individuals leaving secret messages and hiding treasures for each other — however they by no means appear to go wherever. And if Moira is operating away from house, why are there seemingly no penalties for her reckless journey (or is that simply the boring grown-up in us speaking)? And what precisely is the purpose within the rhythm sections, which break up the climbing by asking Moira to run to the jaunty however irregular beat of Scottish folks music?
Our greatest reply to this query is our heroine herself. Moira, being a teen whose world extends solely to the close by coast and again, has an energetic creativeness, and her thoughts is steeped in Gaelic folktales. As she runs, she hears Hamish in her head, writing to her concerning the witch-queen Morag, the elusive selkies, and all of the myths and legends which have soaked into these mountains just like the blood of clans previous. Moira, bless her coronary heart, takes all of it at face worth — however as she explores, you begin to see this magic blur into actuality, too. Echoes lead you thru secret cave passages. The goshawk, an avian emissary of Morag, watches over you. Secret messages carved in ruins trace at a long-lost cult of some type. It is exhausting to not fall in love with this richly woven tapestry of a world, even when the mountain-climbing will get irritatingly backtrack-y.
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Like 80 Days, A Highland Song desires you to play once more, and once more, and once more. Within the first run, you are underpowered, underprepared, and do not but perceive that typically the way in which to progress shouldn’t be apparent, resulting in a irritating expertise. The second run is healthier. The magic of the hills saves all of your shortcuts and maps, and the story builds on what you already know, sketching a fuller image of why Moira’s operating away, and what she’s operating in the direction of. The third is healthier nonetheless. The fourth run is near one thing really nice.
However the pull of thriller and discovery is not fairly sufficient to mitigate the need of repetition. You may tire of trekking up the identical mountains, listening to the identical phrases from Hamish, and getting caught on the identical difficult little bit of hill time and again. You may attempt to put collectively the puzzle items of which merchandise to make use of the place, like keys and cash used on doorways and statues, solely to search out that you simply dropped that exact merchandise on prime of a hill method again at god-knows-where. You may need to take new paths by way of the hills to search out new tales, however realise that you do not bear in mind which method you went final time. A bit sherpa-like help — or higher but, extra selection initially — may need made it somewhat simpler to work our method from the underside to the highest once more. In any case, do not they are saying you by no means climb the identical mountain twice?
Conclusion
A Highland Track’s folklore-infused journey takes “strolling simulator” to the acute, as you pull its teen runaway Moira up and down the cliffs and mountains of the Scottish highlands, discovering treasures, music, and magic alongside the way in which. However its repetitious nature wears away the enjoyment of exploration, and additional playthroughs are a battle between the fun of recent discoveries and the tedium of getting to retread previous floor.