Game 22 - Dujanah (PC) - 3 hours
Dujanah is truly one of the surrealist, weird games that I have ever played. At first, the game appears to be supported by a simple goal; you are a mother trying to find your missing husband and child. This narrative sort of plays second fiddle though, because all you need to do to complete this story is visit places and talk to a few people. The real entertainment lies in the actual places and people that you see and talk to. I got the sense that the developer wanted to share different ideas, thoughts, and stories, and provide space for the player to make their own meaning and draw their own conclusions. So while the game's story overall is pretty simple, and there's a lot of other outside stuff that doesn't connect to the story that well, the game was still very emotional to experience with it's themes of death, spirituality, existentialism, grief, and many others, wrapped in very ambiguous yet artistfull imagery and dialogue.
These themes are communicated through some of the most striking visuals and sound design I have ever witnessed. The game is primarily hand-molded clay and mixed media, and is equal parts charming, quirky, creepy, weird, and disgusting. The visuals are filled with glitchy pixels, strange textures, horrifying robots and fleshy creatures, and everything in between. Alongside the visual feast is a soundtrack that is beautiful, haunting, scary, and melancholy. It's very well done. However, did all of these things need to be in the game? I'm not sure; I think these visual choices help strengthen the impact and immersion in some areas but there are others that felt out of place or like they didn't belong.
Surprisingly, the game isn't just "walk and talk to people" like a lot of indie adventure games. A large section of the game is based around playing some trippy arcade games each with their own unique visuals and gameplay quirks. Some of them play really well while others do not. For example, travel is done across a large world map in a motorcycle with some truly awful driving controls. Lastly, there are some interesting random elements and some endings that I missed, which add some nice replay value.
So in summary, while the gameplay and story of Dujanah could feel a little vestigial at times, the game was certainly entertaining and thought provoking, and I'd recommend it. It's definitely "artsy" and is not for everyone though.