Year Walk

Between its eerie atmosphere, creative puzzles and clever use of an oft-ignored area of folklore, Year Walk is a brilliant game that will stick with you long after the credits roll.

Year Walk is a small but perfectly formed piece of digital entertainment that shows there’s much more to iOS than endless runners and free-to-play timewasters. A game this distinctive, this different, this thrillingly new is the best possible demonstration of the format’s versatility; indeed, of the narrative power of the interactive medium.

It is as captivating as any game, book, or movie, making it an absolute must buy. You shouldn’t have an iOS device if you don’t partake in this masterpiece of game making, and art.

Year Walk is a fantastic experience that’s going to stick with me for a while. It’s haunting, mysterious, and is a must-play for those willing to stomach the dark tale it weaves. This is Simogo’s magnum opus.

Year Walk is smart, thrilling, and absolutely stunningly crafted. It'll throw you for a loop, leaving you transfixed to the screen until you shake out all of its dark secrets.

If you're willing to buy into Year Walk, to explore it's shifting landscape and learn its lessons, you'll find a tremendous game. I've never played anything quite like it.

While so many games on the App Store (including Simogo's earlier releases) are happy with bleeping and blooping in colorful ways to providing an addictive game space, Year Walk takes a darker road and only lingers long enough to provide a decent chill down your spine.

A unique, chilling adventure that illustrates the true potential of mobile gaming. [May 2013, p.88]

It’s the depth and flawless execution of this vision, matched only by Capybyra Games’ majestic Superbrothers: Swords and Swocery, that makes Year Walk something of a rare treasure within the realms of iOS gaming. It’s a simple, beautiful, if sometimes confusing puzzler, whose original premise and disturbing atmosphere will linger in your mind long after its brilliantly suggestive end-sequence.

A different experience with a heavy atmosphere, both beautiful and a little scary. Hardly more than an hour long, but still it manages to convey more than most games does in ten hours.

Atmospheric, unique, scary, challenging. And the most well-dressed horse you've ever met.

One of the best iOS games for several months is a wonderfully disturbing horror story that innovates in terms of everything from visuals and interface to its macabre narrative.

More a visual story than a game, Year Walk provides plenty of chills, odd imagery, and mild freak-out moments to go with its head-scratching puzzles.

Easily the crowning jewel, though, is the way that form mirrors function in this evocative outing.

This is a brave and truly original work, and if this is what happens when Simogo explores its dark side, it should do so more often.

Elegant and artful, Year Walk is an unmissable piece of work - and one that is surprisingly hard to disentangle yourself from once it's done. You can close the app and put down the phone, but the forest may spread beyond its glassy confines, its spindly, silver-skinned trees taking root in your own home, your own dreams.

So Year Walk is much more than a single riddle, wrapped in a single, mysterious enigma. It's an intricately blended experience of puzzles and exploration, with seemingly forgotten clues returning to the surface later on. That those puzzles often unravel in a somewhat illogical order is the only real complaint we have about the game - it's more of a journey through a developer's imagination than a traditional game, and it's a relatively brief experience too.

If you’re wondering when mobile games are going to start offering something more sophisticated and nuanced, Year Walk is at the vanguard on an emerging frontier.

Simogo takes you on a special, sometimes scary melancholic journey that looks like a Swedish winter wonderland at first, but leading you step by step in a dark world hiding behind its pretty façade.

Year Walk makes shivers run down your spine like you’re actually up to your knees in Swedish snow. An uncomfortable and mysterious experience that’s worth trying for the unique style alone.

This is probably the most original iOS game since Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP.

Year Walk is beautiful meditation on darkness, love, time, and space that goes beyond traditional point-and-click and into a more immersive iOS interface.

Pretty damn creepy. [May 2013, p.82]

A brisk and energetic horror novella adventure that evokes the fantastic tones of Limbo and The Room. Though it’s a bit hampered by some overly obscure puzzles, it nevertheless bolsters the iOS library with a much-welcomed dose of mature, adult artistry.

Year Walk is one of the most original and innovative games on the App Store. It's got a tremendous atmosphere and a strong direction, but it's also quite obscure in its puzzle mechanics.

It is at times dauntingly difficult, but there’s no denying Simogo’s slightly deranged Year Walk is among the most daring and innovative gaming experiences yet available for iOS.

If 2012 wasn't necessarily an unforgettable year in terms of releases for smartphones and tablets, 2013 starts very well with Year Walk. This enticing journey into Swedish myths and legends offers stunning visuals and sound, with puzzles, riddles, exploration and secrets to discover. It's a little short, but comes with a bonus free app explaining what the original legends and characters from Swedish folklore are. Definitely a fresh experience on iOS.

Year Walk is ingenious, imaginative, and intriguing, and only let down by its short runtime and easy puzzles.

Year Walk is also presented in a linear visual fashion that, though it is used effectively, creates a repetitive and – if you’re able to rush past its puzzles – rather short experience. But none of this should take away from what is a monumental and truly frightening game that packs more innovation and ideas into the horror genre than we’ve seen from ‘traditional’ games for some time.

Year Walk isn’t for everyone, as it is far from a casual experience and it takes a lot of effort from the player to get into it. For those who manage to immerse themselves completely this is one of the greatest games ever on iOS. For those who don’t it is a waste of time, and money.