Atuel
Review

Atuel (2022) is a surrealist narrative game where you traverse the topography and wildlife of the Atuel River, in Argentina. Like a documentary you watch clips from interviews with locals, exploring the intimate and historic relationships with land and nature. But like a game you explore these lands as different animals.

It's a documentary that uses interaction to connect you to the narrative it tells. You explore beautiful, dreamlike landscapes. Your perspective is fluid and interconnected with animals as you shapeshift to become different creatures and elements that form Atuel’s ecosystem.

As you progress you hear real-life interviews about the past, present, and future of the Atuel. These weave together to form a historic narrative about the intimate relationship between the land and its inhabitants. The result is a beautiful audiovisual experience focused on contemplative exploration in both English and Spanish.

Atuel was being developed by Matajuegos in collaboration with The Twelve 01 Project. Matajuegos is an Argentine game dev co-op dedicated to thinking and creating games from cultural, political, and artistic perspectives. The Twelve 01 Project is an international documentary team dedicated to telling stories about environmental preservation. The game is a sister project to their own film documentary of the same name.

Our examiner, Andy Robertson, first checked Atuel 14 months ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 5 months ago.