RB: Axolotl

RB: Axolotl is a multi-year labor of love from a very small team and it bravely includes some characters and emotional situations that have rarely been explored in games, but given the passive nature of the player experience, I couldn’t help but wonder if the video game format was the best, or even a necessary, vehicle for telling the story. I was at first interested in the characters and their emotional and philosophical dilemmas but I was eventually annoyed and made impatient by the pacing and presentation, repetitive visuals and lack of player input. Other than clicking to advance the dialogue and very occasionally hitting a key to start a short animation, my participation was neither necessary or rewarded so it was difficult to fully invest the the drama and lives of the characters.