There’s plenty here that did its best to keep me interested: there are places to explore, things to read, things to think about, and sights to see. If you value that in games, you might like it. Almost nothing interrupts the walking and thinking: it’s pretty hard to get yourself killed. So is getting lost: the protagonist has a map and a car, and later you can get a snowmobile too.

But the story really disappointed me. It starts with an intriguing mystery, but before that can go anywhere, it all dissolves into supernatural stuff. Fine, except the mystery goes out the window with it. Why look for clues, form theories, or worry about anything? Unexplained visions from nowhere will tell and show you everything that happened. Before long, you catch yourself sharing the hero’s weary shrug at all the weirdness around him.

Meanwhile, the mystical side of the plot has gaping holes of its own. The tragedy becomes more or less clear toward the end, yes, but even the final, most complete vision raises a whole host of questions that nobody bothers to answer. The plot is a lot like the game’s map: it looks complete, but in practice you can access at most half of it, with the rest brushed aside under a plainly visible “well, because magic, that’s how magic works, you see?”

No, damn it, I don’t.