The best sci-fi stories don’t need guns, large-scale wars, and sinister villains to defeat. The best stories need a great setting, solid momentum, and relatable characters. When I first played Some Distant Memory at PAX WEST 2019, the demo brought me to an apocalyptic world based on real-life science and intrigued me with its likable characters and technological mystery. I’ve finally sat down with the game on the Nintendo Switch platform, and this journey into technology, humanity, and hope has solidified into a great adventure worth experiencing.
The Earth could only take so much punishment from the abuses of humankind, and on the day of The Great Collapse, the Earth lost its patience. Years of abuse and pollution gave rise to algal storms, known as Bloom Algae, that has become airborne, greatly disrupting the weather systems of the world and creating devastating storms. Fracking and drilling shake the Earth, creating a great earthquake that plunders entire cities, morphing them into concrete tombs. Many humans have died and over the years, Bloom exposure has corroded all it touched. Even starvation is a preferred death to Bloom exposure brought upon by the storms. Space travel is rendered impossible, and all steps towards it are diverted to surviving on Earth.
Several hundred years pass, and the surviving humans manage to create bio-domes that can protect and sustain humans. The oldest bio-dome, Ares, was once constructed for the colonization of Mars but now houses a host of humans seeking shelter and survival. The future of humanity looks grim.
Venturing beyond the domes requires special protection as exposed humans die a horrible death.
For Professor Zay, hope lies in the relics of the Pre-Collapse Era, a mission she has worked on for over a decade. While wrapping up a search mission with Commander Ti, an old relic captures the Professor’s eye when suddenly the ground breaks underneath her and sends her into a terrible fall down a mysterious cave. She awakens with her artificial companion, AURORA, and discovers a trail of old relics from the Pre-Collapse Era. Professor Zay and Aurora wander further into the cave in a fleeting hope of discovering humanity’s only hope, the mysterious Sunken City.
Some Distant Memory is a puzzle-solving adventure game, where players explore an underground structure as Professor Zay. Professor Zay’s lantern houses a highly advanced AI unit, AURORA, capable of identifying and understanding Pre-Collapse relics. Players enter a mysterious structure that is both familiar and ancient, piecing together the various pieces of ancient technologies with AURORA. Players scan and explore, putting clues together and recreating past events through the highly advanced algorithms of AURORA. In understanding these pieces of technology, it becomes evident that people lived in this cave and through their past lives lies the potential to unlock the possibility of not just creating the future, but creating new life.
Some Distant Memory is a brilliantly well-written sci-fi mystery that taps into many of the present issues currently at large today. Energy, programming, computers, games, societal struggles, and family dysfunctionality all came to mind while playing Some Distant Memory. Each of these subjects, and the choices made within them, give further clarity to the state of the world and the hope lying beneath the bleakness. There’s an intricate detail but a proper framing, almost making Some Distant Memory more than a video game, and a true depiction of something that is happening. Some Distant Memory takes place in the future but there is a strong sense that this is happening now, in this new year and in this new decade, and Some Distant Memory is a window into that potential future.
Perhaps what strikes me most in Some Distant Memory is its proposal of the possibilities of A.I. Without spoiling anything, Some Distant Memory certainly takes inspiration from Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by author Phillip K Dick. Though, Some Distant Memory takes the themes of that short story and goes further. In recreating memories, and potentially people, do we give them a new life? Are they truly brought back from the dead? Or are they ghosts, fragmented and unfulfilled recreations of people born from millions of lines of code? An artificial intelligence is a highly advanced program with algorithms and codes precisely programmed to do a certain thing. There have been fictional stories of AI becoming malevolent to the human condition, namely the infamous SKYNET from the Terminator films. If an AI learns hard enough, does it become a newfound organism? Perhaps they can become a new sentient lifeform that can break away from programming and form its own identity. It’s an interesting series of questions that I only found myself asking when playing the sci-fi romantic adventure, Alone With You in 2016. Some Distant Memory presents interesting answers in regard to these questions.
Discussing issues like this can be potentially depressing, especially for players looking for more of an escape in video games. Fortunately, these themes are handled with a degree of humor. The chemistry between Commander Ti, Professor Zay, and AURORA is smart and had me chuckling a few times, especially with the pop-culture and gaming references. Some Distant Memory understands that it’s important to have fun, even when searching the ruins of humanity’s prosperous era. Even the memories that are reconstructed are mature, and sometimes heart-wrenching, but they can also lighthearted and humorous. The story is met against a strong presentation of animation and sound. Some Distant Memory is visually presented with hand-drawn animation, creating a stunning and immersive feel for the game. It’s strong and works well with giving the impressions of lightning, rust, and decay. The characters and hologram creations are animated well too. While there is a limited music score, the music does its job throughout the exploration and hits properly for big reveals.
As for the gameplay, Some Distant Memory has players scan rooms and artifacts to recreate memories. In a sense, it is still puzzling solving, as there are multiple scannable items but not every item needs to be scanned to recreate a memory. From pictures to letters to documents to old systems, Some Distant Memory presents a bevy of collectibles to discover. After everything has been discovered in a room, a memory can be digitally reconstructed, furthering the plot and unraveling the mystery. With the exception of moving around and some interactions with relics, that is the extent of the gameplay. It wouldn’t necessarily be called a walking simulator, it’s more of a mystery adventure.
My time with Some Distant Memory was great, but the two biggest drawbacks are the length and limited gameplay. The story is excellent and the ideas it presents are profound. However, the gameplay is limited and there is no incentive to replay the game, except to read the story again. There is no director’s cut or hidden adventure in the game. After the six-hour playthrough of Some Distant Memory, that is the fullest extent that the game has to offer. It’s bittersweet as I was enjoying the world depicted and the chemistry between the characters, as well as the ideas established within the story. Criticisms aside, I am more than satisfied with Some Distant Memory being its own, contained story of hope and discovering a second chance for a new future.
Some Distant Memory is a story for the intellectual sci-fi gamer, and a great tale to experience for all players. Its wonderful presentation and strong writing make for an engaging adventure, but it also presents a strong conversation to be had in today’s world. We are inching ever so closely to AI having a more prominent role in our lives and the world is beckoning for a positive shift in the battle against climate change. Some Distant Memory isn’t going to single-handily change the world but it is a game that will create the foundation to help do so, inspiring the players that play to write their own stories and take a look at the world around them.
Some Distant Memory is a mystery worth unraveling.
Some Distant Memory is available on Steam and Nintendo Switch for $14.99 USD. More information can be found on the official website. A digital Nintendo Switch copy was provided for the purpose of review.
