This tear-jerking game about grief taught me an invaluable lesson about loss

digitaltrends.com:

Grief isn’t static. It’s an ever-changing beast that transforms without notice. One moment, you’re certain you’ve finally learned to accept and live with a loss. Then next, you’re back in a spiral after the tiniest detail dredges those complicated feelings back up. An object that’s been sitting in your house collecting dust for years suddenly becomes a powder keg loaded with painful memories. The places that once felt comforting distort into something hostile.

Hindsight, a new narrative indie game published by Annapurna Interactive, captures that experience through a simple, but effective interactive experience. It’s the latest in a line of video game personal essays (think A Memoir Blue or Before Your Eyes) that dare to deliver emotional truth over pure fun. Hindsight is a quick game that can be completed in one sitting, but I already know its difficult musings on grief are going to stick with me longer than most 40-hour games I’ve played this year.

Hindsight tells a focused story about a woman returning home to clean out her childhood home after her mother passes away. Each object she packs away suddenly becomes a window into her past, unlocking difficult memories about her past. A metronome becomes a reminder of an overbearing mother who pushed her too hard. A mortar and pestle set connects the dots between her love of cooking with her parents to her ultimate career as a restaurant owner. Each object connects the dots of her life, piecing together how seemingly small moments from her childhood shaped her.

That’s all communicated through a simple interactive system. Players click (or tap, as I did on the Switch’s touch screen) on highlighted objects to travel into them. At one point, I tap on a tire swing on the front