I have a game recommendation for you dear reader. I know it might be hard to drag yourself away from your game of Left 4 Call of Assassin’s Age: Origins 2, trust me I am thankful that you even have the time to read these first couple of sentences. If you will indulge me further then take this piece of advice: give Devil’s Tuning Fork, the 30 minute play through it deserves. This free independent PC title reminds me of my experience with Mirror’s Edge because of two key similarities.

1. Devil’s Tuning Fork is a first person game that does not need weapons to achieve it’s aim. It leverages the potential for engagement that a first person perspective holds without the explosions.
2. The visual style of the game is intimately tied to the player’s engagement with the world.

In Devil’s Tuning Fork you are a child who is exploring his/her own coma state which you fall into at the outset. You must explore this space using a Tuning Fork to send out sound waves which move across all surfaces illuminating their moving textures briefly. It is a simple mechanic that creates some amazing visual set pieces all as a result of the your own actions. The sound waves have a functional purpose in lighting the path you must walk, highlighting false floors that cause you to fall and activating chimes that engage moving platforms allowing progress. Each soundwave reveals a dynamic moving world as if you are trying to kickstart your brain, to shake off the darkness of the coma. The moving walls when briefly illuminated are sometimes disorienting, giving a false sense of movement, the jarring moments as you try to force your way out of this mental prison.

The story elements are thin on the ground which combined with the visual effects provide a nice frame to fill in the gaps and make of this world what you wish. The crescendo of effects in a game such as Left 4 Call of Assassin’s Age: Origins 2 might result in  a complex and visceral experience begging to be analyzed and thought about but I feel, dear reader, that a simple game with simple ideas can be a memorable one as well. Devil’s Tuning Fork is one such game, and it is not something I feel I will forget soon.

Take the time to explore Devil’s Tuning Fork, I am sure that there will always be time for Left 4 Call of Assassin’s Age: Origins 2.

This entry was originally posted on my blog www.binary-swan.com