Exploring Fractured Minds…or should I say, exploring Emily’s mind. Fractured Minds is a point-and-click type game with small, relatively easy, straight to the point puzzles. This game’s creator, Emily Mitchell, was the winner of the 2017 BAFTA Young Game Designers Award. You really can’t go wrong with the price point either, at just $1.99 with 80% of the proceeds being split up between Emily herself to further her career in making video games, and the other half of the proceeds going to the charity “Safe In Our World,” a video games mental health organization.
Plot
Fractured Minds is the personal journey of 17-year-old Emily Mitchell, the creator of the game, who suffers with severe anxiety. Created with hopes to help people with a better understanding, and stand in solidarity with mental health illness. With this game, you will dive deep into Emily’s personal and emotional journey through her perspective of her human psyche.
Gameplay
As you embark on this journey through the mind of Emily, you get to traverse through six thought-provoking, simplistic chapters. Each chapter shows you the challenges of someone that deals with this illness, such as anxiety, along with isolation and loneliness, displaying what the struggles of everyday situations could and can be. In my mind, the perfect phrase to embody this game would be “a beautiful disaster.”
Pros
Now let’s talk about the positive points of this game, because we are dealing with a sensitive topic. In today’s society, and with so much talk about anxiety, we have to find some type of uplifting notion. Simply put, this game is beautiful for what it is. The graphics are clean, and the controls are so easy to use that anybody of any age could pick this game up and not have a problem playing the whole playthrough. The somber music works so well with the chapters you play, filling you with a real sense of hopelessness. There is even a moment in the game, in the sinking chapter, where you feel what the creator feels when going through a stressful day. Sinking – an effortless yet effective way of getting her point across.
Cons
Now, the only downside I would say about this game is the length. I played it on the PS4, which is an estimated 22-minute playtime, but upon finishing it, I was left wanting more. Wanting to find out more about her story, and how she deals with battling her demons, and what helps or motivates her to get out of bed every day and tackle the next task.
The Verdict
This game hits on all marks for me. Personally, this game kind of hits home; not in the sense that I deal with these issues myself on a daily basis, but I do watch this happen to my wife on a day to day basis. The struggles I see her go through are real, emotional, and detrimental to herself, and can sometimes carry over onto others. Anxiety, depression, and mental illness is a real thing and should never be pushed to the side, and said that this isn’t a disease. In closing, these are problems that everyone should be aware of, and Fractured Minds definitely helps you gain a better understand of what a person goes through. I’m definitely excited to see where Emily goes in the video game industry.
