Far From Noise and the value - and dangers - of loneliness
If you ever have to drive as much as I do, your mind begins to wander as your body enters autopilot. Somehow simultaneously, you consider each decision you make behind the wheel while thinking of everything else going on in your life. Sometimes you connect the two: will slowing down at this amber light make me late for my appointment? Will the car opposite avoid the cat at the edge of the pavement? And will I skid the car off the edge of the nearby cliff?
That final situation is where things begin in Far From Noise, a visual novel made up entirely from an interactive conversation. You play a nameless character, hanging from the very edge of mortality in a classic car, overlooking the sea.
It's immediately apparent that the tone of the game isn't anything close to what you'd expect. The cheerful conversation bubbles remove the need for voice acting and give you the choice of nervously uttering sarcastic remarks, or phrases revealing pure dread. What also struck me about the game's playful artwork is the heavy use of cyan and magenta at the beginning, a throwback to bipack colour photography that I've only seen replicated in Martin Scorsese's film The Aviator. It adds to the dreamlike question of whether or not we're actually in the position we find ourselves in.
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