After waiting in line for close to 20 minutes, I was only given five minutes with Linger in Shadows at Tokyo Game Show. When I told the girl working the booth what I wanted to play (it was part of their 8-title PlayStation Network area), she looked at me funny, as if I was the first person to ask her all day.
“Not game,” she said in forced English. “Just watch?”
I nodded, because based on what I had heard about Linger in Shadows, I knew exactly what she was trying to communicate. By all accounts, it’s really not game at all; Sony is calling it “interactive digital art.” But with a controller in my hand, I found it difficult to not try to play a game where none existed.
Linger plays out much like a movie, only it’s interactive. By tilting the controller, I was able to look around at different areas of the environment as a non-interactive camera followed black smoke throughout a city landscape. At certain points I was able to pause the action, and then shake the controller until the screen crackled with fuzz and faded to black, before revealing a new scene.
If there’s a story, five minutes with Linger certainly didn’t hint at it or uncover any clues as to what was really going on. It certainly does play out like an experimental film, a unique nightmare that could either leave your scratching your head or thinking about it for days.
And while Linger in Shadows is certainly not a “game,” like a game it will (quite confusingly) support trophies when it comes to PlayStation Network this winter. I look forward to reading the vast interprations of just what’s lingering in these shadows.
Published: Oct 13, 2008 02:02 pm