Birth
Review

Birth (2023) is a Frankenstein-style adventure where you construct a companion for your loneliness. The twist is that you do this in a grotesque exploration to find spare bones and organs to bring your creation to life. Play involves solving puzzles and winning minigames by using the game's real physics to find innovative solutions. It stands out not only for the unusual theme but how well its character and world create a dream-like treatise on the thin end of life.

You are alone, says the game's description. You bring relief to your loneliness by building a creature, a partner, a wet warm heart, and a collection of bones. But unlike the usual gothic horror setting for a story like this, Birth takes you to everyday hand-drawn museums, coffee shops, alleys, flower shops, libraries, markets and bakeries. There you find the bones and organs to create your companion.

As you progress there's another puzzle of how to put these pieces together and bring each part to life. You click to reveal more of what you've found, find items and combine these to start hearts pumping and kidneys filtering. Until finally, you have your companion made whole.

The result is a game that takes you somewhere unusual. Not only to consider the rudimentary elements that make up living breathing beings but to what it really means to be lonely, wandering the streets seemingly noticeable by the people you pass. It's potent and delicate, unsettling and gross but also innocent and childlike.

Our examiner, Andy Robertson, first checked Birth 8 months ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 8 months ago.