Why are so many games and movies set in the 80's and 90's lately? To circumvent cell phones. The presence of cell phones would make Swiss cheese out of most modern plots. I grew up in the 70's, so I remember the 80's and 90's very well. The era is sold to the younger generation as a retro-futuristic neon paradise. Well.. it wasn't. I was there. It wasn't very much different from today, even without cell phones and internet. From seeing the long-term social effects of the baby boomer generation pining away for a mythical golden era of post-war 50's, I can say that I've lived long enough to see the mistake in viewing yesterday as somehow better than today. It causes an indolence and unease that can easily transform into apathy or antipathy. In this way, nostalgia can be a hindrance to progress when we try to recapture an age that never really existed outside of the media.

Throughout the late 1980's and early 90's I hitch-hiked across the country, from coast to coast numerous times. I was primarily following a band called The Grateful Dead, camping between concerts, finding a nomadic community called The Rainbow Family of Living Light and plugging in there with the survival skills I had learned in my childhood. From foraging and gathering to dumpster diving and flying a cardboard sign, I got by. Never had two pennies to rub together, but I was free. It wasn't easy or fun most of the time. It's really hard, and taxing on the body. But so worth it. The hardest part.. the part that makes you settle down eventually.. is all the goodbyes. Out there traveling I met so many new and interesting people, formed quick and easy bonds over very brief periods of time, and then never saw them again. That gets real hard on the heart after a while.

Folks used to ask me, when they picked me up or when I asked for food, what I was doing. It was obvious from my appearance that I had been living outdoors for years. I always replied, "I'm on a quest for the best view." And I have seen many. The one that tops the list, looking West over the Golden Gate Bridge to the Pacific, all the way from a high hilltop in Sonoma, and could also see the green valleys and vineyards below, even a herd of white-tail deer. I sat there until it got dark, the Ocean wind watering my eyes, and I knew.. this was it. I had found the best view. It struck me then, real hard, that there was not another single living person that I could ever turn to and say, "you remember that view?"

Jerry Garcia, the front man for the band I was following, died in 1995, not long after I had seen him play for the last time at Soldier Field in Illinois. China Doll encore.. I swear he wept. "Dust off those rusty strings just one more time.." And another, very different, chapter of my life began. Down darker paths than most can imagine..

Anyway, what's all this got to do with this game? I got into it thinking oh boy here we go, another band of starry-eyed millennials trying to recapture a time that they never lived in. Bound to be lots of neon.. for some reason the kids think it was all neon back then.. bound to be a white-washed amalgam of media tropes and plucky acoustic music a'la Life is Strange.. bound to be tough choices that pay off in the end.. and likely a broken heart here and there so the kids can get the feels and buy more later. And of course, the ubiquitous edgy girl or boy that needs saving but refuses it. Well.. sure it has some of that, but by and large I am so far really surprised that the game captures that certain.. je ne sais quoi.. of that time in history. The zeitgeist, if you will. The feeling in your heart of being out on the open road is.. intangible to say the least, but they somehow manage to capture it here and echo my own past back to me. This has only happened once before, with the movie "Into the Wild" that felt like the script was ripped straight from my life (except that I know what berries not to eat and how to properly field dress a moose fer chri'sake).

This game resonates with me. It won't for everyone. I wish that it did. The fact that an artwork of this nature can draw anger from certain sectors and belief systems is.. troubling. The irony is that it's the same dynamic on both sides of the coin. Proponents and opponents both are pining for a time that never really existed outside of the media. As much as I like to reminisce, I know from experience that when you are lost gazing at the past, the future will sneak up and blindside you with a hay-maker every time.

Game play is interesting, a new twist on the choices-matter genre, but nothing groundbreaking. There are character driven scenarios that re-roll each play, kind of shuffling the deck, quite a lot of pretty little vignettes with some exploration, events and conversational characters. If you like visual novels and investigating each branch for every possible outcome, then you'll love this here, being somewhat more interactive than a VN. For me, it's a blend of LiS and the movie Into the Wild.. somehow. Feels like Eddie Vedder should have done the soundtrack.. I will play more, but.. it's kinda hard, you know? I can't listen to China Doll anymore. It takes me there, and I don't need that, emotionally. That time is gone and it would be a grave error to attempt to recreate it.

The story is not that strong, but they do manage to capture a certain milieu. It didn't need the politics. Right or wrong, I'm personally exhausted by it. Though I understand that it may have been more relevant during development, more immediate. It's practically a moot point at this time, and rather like flogging a dead horse. (Yes, the figurative horse is figuratively dead, he just can't admit it yet.. figuratively.) Why are so many gamers apolitical? Because they're playing games, not watching TV. Old timers used to have a saying back when TV was still a pretty new thing.. "gonna rot yer brains out!" they wildly prophesied. Oddly enough, they were right.