The Longing

The Longing (2020) is a point-and-click adventure about waiting and loneliness. It's an intentionally slow game that takes 400 elapsed days to finish. It draws on the Idle Game genre, where you use minor interactions to incrementally advance. Here though, the slow repetitive pace of the game isn't to persuade you to pay money to speed things up but to reflect on the pace of life.

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The 400 days of the game advance in real-time, both during play and between sessions. As time passes you click to move around and explore the world, find items and take on simple tasks. It is set in a small cave with hand-drawn paintings on the wall and carpets on the floor. Not unlike a hobbit hole. There is even a fire in the corner. In the space you, as the Shade, wait until the time arrives when you can awaken its king.

Along with the long-slow pace of the game, interactions in the world are also slow. You move slowly, and even simple tasks take a long long time. This consists mostly of exploring caves, gathering resources to furnish your home and other busy work. These things can slightly speed up the game clock but not very much.

Although this sounds like something of an anti-game, it is surprisingly intriguing and appealing. It invites you to face the slow pace of time. But more than that, it becomes a place for you to face, and potentially reconnect with yourself. How you play the game doesn't have a huge effect on the screen (although there are several endings) but it can have a large effect on you, the player.

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Our examiner, Rich Adams, first checked The Longing 4 years ago. It was re-examined by Thom Robertson and updated 6 months ago.