Review: Actual Sunlight For The PS Vita
The first time I ever heard of Actual Sunlight was when the PlayStation Blog has announced that the visual novel Actual Sunlight will be heading to the PS Vita.
Actual Sunlight describes itself as a short interactive story about love, depression and the corporation. In the game you take the role of Evan Winter, a young professional who lives in Toronto, following his moves through three distinct periods of his life.
At the beginning you get the note that Actual Sunlight deals with extremely mature themes, including depression and thoughts of suicide. But to be honest, the game also has its moments when you can laugh for being quite sarcastic.
With the L stick you control Evan Winters from a top-down retro art style perspective while pressing x makes you interact with objects and people finding out more about his story.
One of the interactions are written poems by Evan Winters himself where he philosophizes about all the aspects of his life. Patient transcripts with his doctor reveal further details when he must have been already in treatment for his depression.
Important parts of the game’s story are highlighted with special screens marking an essential moment of Evan Winters life. The game comes with some music and a few sound effects like people’s laughter and the alarm clock in the morning.
The most time in Actual Sunlight you will read the very well written story of Evan Winters with his thoughts on suicide, love and what is life all about. During the game I often was thinking about my own life and reflecting if I’m satisfied with it in contrary to the protagonist.
And this is what makes Actual Sunlight special: the game’s authenticity dealing with a serious subject based on the author’s own personal experience. During the two or three hours play time you will start thinking more about yourself.
Actual Sunlight (PS Vita)
Summary
Short, but good visual novel experience with a serious subject
+ Very well written, authentic story
+ Has its funny moments
+ Makes you think about yourself
+ Fits perfectly on the PS Vita
- More music and sound effects would have been welcomed
Actual Sunlight is available for the PS Vita via the PlayStation Network in North America for $4.99. A release in Europe depends on the initial success of the game in North America.
Check out our Actual Sunlight Gameplay Video:
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