You wake up and everyone on the colony is dead. What happened? How can you escape from there? And… who are you, anyway? This scenario hardly sounds innovative, but science-fiction adventure The Mind’s Eclipse still has a few surprises in store for you.
In true adventure gaming fashion, you explore the derelict space station, solve a few rather easy inventory puzzles, and try to piece together the fate of the station’s crew by reading log entries which are scattered all over the place. Since everyone’s dead, that’s pretty much all you do, but it’s intriguing enough.
Actually, you do have someone to keep you company: the rather enigmatic L, an AI companion inside your head, offers help and the occasional snarky reply. (You keep wondering if she’s really on your side, but at least she’s better than that weird COSy thing that sometimes just appears in your mind and… just… takes over.)
The game’s presentation appears rather sparse, with static screens in hand-drawn black and white and atmospheric background music. This perfectly adds to the atmosphere, rendering yor exploration solitary and oppressive. It also let’s you focus on the narrative and perfectly fits the game’s underlying themes.
At the end of the day, The Mind’s Eclipse offers intriguing sci-fi trappings and – without venturing too far into spoiler territory – a memorable exploration of grief and loss with a fair bit of horror thrown into the mix. That’s hardly uplifting stuff, but it’s a short, captivating experience very much worth your time.
You can purchase The Mind’s Eclipse from itch.io and Steam for $ 9.99. A playable demo can be found here. For more information, visit the game’s website or follow developer Mind’s Eclipse Interactive on Twitter.
