Published by Sometimes You, Poetic Trio is a minimalist walking simulator with very little interactivity. Segmented into three chapters revolving around rain, wind, and snow, the lack of excitement and generic presentation doesn’t offer much other than an easy 1,000 gamerscore in about an hour.

Built using stock assets within the Unreal Engine, the only player input comes from moving using typical FPS analog stick controls: one for movement and one for looking. Eventually, one button can be used to walk a little faster and another makes icons appear on-screen to direct the player, but there is no jumping, no combat, or menus to navigate. In fact, technically this cannot be considered a “game” since there is no way to die or be penalized so calling it an “experience” is more accurate.

Even though there are three chapters, they all basically play the same. The player needs to find an orb then walk to the orb pedestal to unlock the next section. Confusingly, you don’t always walk forward to progress. You might need to walk forward to grab the orb, walk back to place it, then walk back again to find a new open path. Unfortunately, it can be confusing where to go next because everything looks the same; the same stock grass, trees, and textures repeat without any noteworthy set pieces. Additionally, the rate of movement is painstakingly slow. By coincidence, I am playing Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth now and the only thing I could think of is “man, I wish I had a chocobo.” This slow movement will undoubtedly test patience especially in the first couple sections.

The only action this experience sees comes from the final chapter where you collect glowing orbs to provide a boost of speed over a large grassy area. This space is pretty big but thankfully pressing a button places icons on the screen. Without this feature, there would be no chance the player would have any idea on where to go or what to do. The hook comes from short poems written into the environment on occasion, some being tied to Achievements. Unless you are a fan of this form of writing, chances are you will wait for the cheevo to pop while not even reading the poem.

Let’s just call it what it is. This is a walking simulator and it isn’t trying to be anything else. So if you like simple, less action, casual experiences, then this low cost “game” is fine if you like to boost your Gamerscore. However, like visual novels, this type of game won’t appeal to everyone and there are better walking simulators on the market. Unlike other low budget walking games, this one at least has an option to invert the Y axis, so some thought and attention was implemented.

By: Zachary Gasiorowski, Editor in Chief myGamer.com

X/Twitter: @ZackGaz

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