Skip to content
It’s groundhog day, and that means not only six more winter weeks but also time for time loops. The legendary Bill Murray film may have popularized this specific narrative, but today it can be found in almost every medium – including video games. While high profile games like death loop The best implementation of a time warp is the indie title Elsinoreinspired by an unexpected place — hamlet.
The game is the thing
While everyone is talking about cinematic video games, film and television aren’t the only mediums video games can learn from. Elsinorefrom developer Golden Glitch Studios, follows the theater and work of William Shakespeare (who has influenced more video games than meets the eye).
At first glance, Elsinore is a relatively faithful replica of hamlet in a point-and-click adventure game, with the caveat that you witness the events of the play from Ophelia’s perspective. Of course, the doomed Ophelia isn’t destined to see the play through, and you quickly find yourself drowned in a pound.
Then you wake up in your bed.
The twist of Elsinore is that in this version of hamlet, Ophelia is trapped in a mysterious time loop in which she can observe and intervene in the events of the narrative. Essentially rewriting the play as it happens. Mechanically, you have access to a timeline of the day, logging key events and how things change as you take different paths through the narrative.
Over the course of numerous loops, you’ll take Ophelia on a mission to uncover what’s happening to you and, like any good time loop, how to end the cycle.
Theater as an art form is ephemeral, meaning no performance of any show will ever be the same. Actors deliver lines differently, sets can be changed, and directors can take notes. Elsinore‘s exploration of time loops inside hamlet is a mechanical reinvention of that idea, with Ophelia acting as the driving force, adding new paths and dimensions to characters that may never be explored in one lifetime.
Again with feeling
A clear influence on Elsinore is the immersive play sleep no morea retelling of Macbeth That invites viewers to wander through a larger collection of interconnected rooms and follow the characters as they see fit. You can follow the path Macbeth as Shakespeare intended, or you could choose to see what a random servant gets up to while political intrigue is afoot. Every character in it Elsinore has their own schedule of events and tasks to complete. All of this can be disrupted, creating new pathways, like dominoes being knocked over one after the other.
The player is invited to slip into the role of Ophelia and explore different emotions and motivations for the protagonist. One day you might be trying to save Hamlet from his tragic end, while the next you might be fed up with constantly dying every loop and just trying to destroy everyone who finishes it. Some loops even break out of Hamlet and take a page from more modern pieces like Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead. Crucially, the game isn’t telling you what to do.
Slow, Elsinore shows wrinkles in your predicament, namely with the introduction of Peter Quitte. Quince sees through the loops and knows Ophelia’s predicament because he’s the culprit. through Elsinore‘s narrative Ophelia will encounter thirteen different versions of one ending to the story, Quince wants you to choose one. This isn’t a case of “good” versus “bad” endings, it’s just a choice to be made.
This challenges the player and skillfully demonstrates Elsinore’s genius in using the language of theater to directly address a problem of interactive media such as video games. The player is in no small way to blame for Ophelia’s suffering. Both theater and video games need audiences to tell the story. Both are media that require a contract between the artist and the audience. Elsinore asks if your participation will harm Ophelia and the other residents of Elsinore. More than any prestigious Cycles of Violence game Elsinore‘s direct challenge to the player feels strong.
Building your game on one of the most famous plays by what many consider the greatest playwright of all time is a bold move, however Elsinore Threads that needle perfectly thanks to the unique benefits of the time warp game mechanic – sometimes I wish it would never end.
Elsinore is available on PC via Steam for $9.99.