There’s perhaps no genre I love more in this world than “the game where you run around like a little guy”, because the subgenres within it are almost endless. There’s a new entry coming soon to this genre, and it’s called Cinderline, a game in which you play as a silent, anthropomorphic bird who wants to make the last s’more, gathering the various pieces needed to do so as you travel from town to town on a little train.
Cinderline isn’t a particularly complicated game to play, you’d probably call it a walking simulator with a platforming veneer. As mentioned, you play as a bird that can jump around, and that’s kind of it. This bird has just been born, the game opens at the very moment of its hatching, and with the surreality that followed a touch of Angel’s Egg, it reminded you, in the same way, you are thrown into a world with little context, and also the literal egg thing.
Almost immediately upon awakening, you discover a train, mechanical and involved. There are two levers, one that lets you move forward or backward, the other that controls the speed, and while gripping them you have to physically move the camera up or down to bring it into action. No automation is found here, adding even the slightest layer of depth and friction to an otherwise simple process. In the short duration of the demo, you can’t do much with the train, so I hope it’s more than just a vehicle to take you from one strange place to another.
And the places are strange. Your first stop is a subway station with quirky creatures and people who don’t really give you a clue as to what’s going on in this world. In the first town you find yourself in, a town covered in a mysterious snowy ash, a toaster frightened by your appearance asks you to collect his toast in exchange for a reward. A shady man in a black trench coat offers you a pickaxe in exchange for a crumb of toast. Eventually you find yourself faced with a cigar-smoking sentient balloon who gets eaten by a pair of giant grumps, leaving behind a stick, the very stick you need to make the last s’more.
During this acquisition, you discover that all the strange people you met have disappeared. Is your quest to make the last s’more a goal that you, the person playing, do not know the impulse behind, a goal that can bring ruin and loneliness to this world? It’s delightfully eerie in contrast to the colorful, silly, and mysterious characters who inhabit the lands you traverse. This is definitely a game more focused on vibes than anything more complex, but the ambient track on offer at least makes me hungry for more. And for a little extra, it seems. Too bad graham crackers are so hard to find in the UK!
Anyway, you can Cinderline wishlist, or try the demo for yourself, on Steam.
