Get Started...
Android
iOS
Mac
Switch
Wii
Wii U
PC
PS4
PS5
Xbox One
Xbox X|S
Please enter a valid email address
Please choose a platform
:
How does your child play this? Alone, with friends, with family? How did they discover it and what kept them coming back for more?
:
To verify your input please enter your email to create an account.
Email:
Play Overview
Before Your Eyes (2021) is a narrative game about an 11-year-old boy revisiting his life before "crossing over" to the other side. You play by exploring scenes that represent snapshots of his life. Unusually, you make choices and interact with the game by blinking your eyes (seen by your webcam or smartphone camera) rather than pressing a button. It uses this disarming interaction to intimately involve you in an emotional journey about the impossible expectations we place on ourselves and the regrets we carry with us.
Before Your Eyes begins on a desolate sea with a fox-like captain taking you to be judged. You're then instructed to remember your life before you reach this place. When remembering, you blink to progress a memory by interacting with the objects you see, but soon a Metronome appears and your next blink will end the scene.
As you progress this use of blinking becomes second nature. The game leans into this and uses it in ever more intimate ways. If you blink by accident when the Metronome has appeared dialogue is cut short and there's no way back. It creates a tangible tension of your inability to control time. Then there are moments where blinking chooses how the story is told (although it's not branching). Or there are moments when you must keep your eyes open or close them to progress.
The result is a fascinating game that explores the unforgiving pace of life. The uncertainty of how much time you blink forward combined with your inability to hear everything you want to before moving on powerfully creates a sense of powerfulness and inevitability. This combines with the themes of illness, family expectations, performance anxiety and our legacy after death to tell a story that gets under your skin in ways a book or film is unable to do.
Our examiner, Ellen Robertson, first checked Before Your Eyes 3 years ago. It was re-examined by Andy Robertson and updated 6 days ago.
Before Your Eyes begins on a desolate sea with a fox-like captain taking you to be judged. You're then instructed to remember your life before you reach this place. When remembering, you blink to progress a memory by interacting with the objects you see, but soon a Metronome appears and your next blink will end the scene.
As you progress this use of blinking becomes second nature. The game leans into this and uses it in ever more intimate ways. If you blink by accident when the Metronome has appeared dialogue is cut short and there's no way back. It creates a tangible tension of your inability to control time. Then there are moments where blinking chooses how the story is told (although it's not branching). Or there are moments when you must keep your eyes open or close them to progress.
The result is a fascinating game that explores the unforgiving pace of life. The uncertainty of how much time you blink forward combined with your inability to hear everything you want to before moving on powerfully creates a sense of powerfulness and inevitability. This combines with the themes of illness, family expectations, performance anxiety and our legacy after death to tell a story that gets under your skin in ways a book or film is unable to do.
Our examiner, Ellen Robertson, first checked Before Your Eyes 3 years ago. It was re-examined by Andy Robertson and updated 6 days ago.
Kids not old enough for this yet? There are lots of games similar to Before Your Eyes. Here are some similar younger-rated games:
Play Style
This is a Narrative game with Point-and-Click elements. This is a single-player game.
You can play this game in the following styles:
Duration
Play Time: This game will take between 1 and a half hours and 1 hour and 45 minutes to complete.
Benefits
Age Ratings
Rated for younger players in Australia. Rated Mature (PG) Mild Themes.
It's a game that deals with grief and death. There is a brief scene with pools of blood (cartoon style) but in relation to cats rather than human characters. There's a scene where wine is discussed and glasses are raised in a toast. The game includes the word 'hell'. There's the theme of cancer and long-term illness.
On the Apple App Store, it's rated 12 + Infrequent/Mild Mature/Suggestive Themes, Mild Horror/Fear Themes, Infrequent/Mild Profanity or Crude Humor, Infrequent/Mild Realistic Violence, Infrequent/Mild Alcohol, Tobacco, or Drug Use or References.
It was originally rated PEGI 3 for PlayStation VR.
Skill Level
8+ year-olds usually have the required skill to enjoy this game. Still, it's important for parents and guardians to consider the maturity required to process the game content. It's a slower narrative game that requires some maturity to understand the weight of the story. The interactions revolve around blinking your eyes in the real world so you need to be able to control that to some extent. Younger players are sometimes attracted to the unusual interaction here. Very young players could choose to play by tapping rather than blinking.
Costs
Before Your Eyes usually costs £8.50.
There are no additional in-game purchases, loot boxes, adverts or subscription costs.
Before Your Eyes
 | PC | £8.50 | – | – |
 | Android | - | – | Free Netflix |
 | iOS | - | – | Free Netflix |
Game Details
Release Date: 08/04/2021, updated in 2022
Out Now: Android, PC and iOS
Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds
Players: 1
Genres: Narrative and Point-and-Click
Accessibility: 27 features
Components: 3D First-Person and Cartoon
Developer: Goodbye World (@Goodbye__World_)
 |
Written by parents for parents, the database complements the in-depth discussion about video game addiction, violence, spending and online safety in the Taming Gaming book. We are an editorially independent, free resource without adverts that is supported by partnerships. |
© 2024 Family Gaming Database