Gaming is an interesting platform that allows for varied concepts and visions to take shape and form, much like how films have for many years incorporated the same multitude of creativity. I enjoy seeing and experiencing new ideas in gaming, and the indie scene thrives on such original and meaningful journeys. But what makes a game? Can a game simply be a journey without dread, conflict and QTEs? It can indeed, but there, as always, is a right way and wrong way to do this. Edengate: Edge of Life is a game about the journey, rather than the goal, and of course, this will be divisive.
More divisive than The Callisto Protocol.
What is Edengate: The Edge of Life? 
Edengate begins much like many journeys in gaming, with our leading protagonist waking up alone in a strange place, with little recollection of what has happened and clearly the end of days is upon them. We play Mia, a talented young scientist who finds herself alone and in the middle of a dead city. She ventures forth to find anyone else alive and discover the cause of the strange events taking place. There are visions of a young boy running away from her, who appears to possess great, and dangerous gifts, with flashbacks of her past coming back into the frame, including love, loss, and other traumas.
Players will venture through the lonely and eerie city finding clues to Mia’s past, discovering and resolving some major personal obstacles which have kept her from achieving so much more, and discovering who the unknown boy is.
Not such a simple story 
Edengate is a very strange and compelling beast of a game, from a humble indie background. On the outskirts, it has a very simple premise, but narratively and tonally it takes us on such a bizarre and encapsulating ride, for both good and bad.
Waking up in the hospital, everything feels much akin to that of Danny Boyle’s 2002 film, 28 Days Later, where the hospital is a mess, there is no one around and I had the unnerving sense of dread following me throughout my time in this place. Soon upon leaving the hospital, that feeling continued to follow me, until the narrative and tone shifted to something more sci-fi and alien related, before venturing through a personal shift to elements of Mia’s backstory. There are a lot of shifts in the narrative, where one moment the game feels more like a horror movie, building up that first encounter with a big, bad monster, and then it decides to go more the route of something like Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival, before going into a much more personal story and ending on things which are completely off the grid.
These shifts are bizarre, and I can easily see people not gelling with the flow of events, but overall I felt they connected well enough and there was a somewhat natural narrative here, be it wanting to explore multiple story avenues yet never committing purely to one of them.
I enjoyed exploring the lonely world before Mia and finding out what the hell was going on while discovering some personal traumas which we could resolve together in a meaningful way. I get the central theme of this tale and its one which is very important, but where things wrap up the way they do, I can see people being really turned off.
There is a lack of answers for certain elements, and it did make me question whether some of these story beats were needed at all. Why does the setup of Mia seemingly being the last person on Earth matter in the context of her self-discovery and healing? And what certain icons and objects meant to her and to us as players.
Edengate has a fascinating journey, with a likeable lead and some neat backstory threads. But there is such a massive feeling of the end just not knowing what to do, and thus wraps things up in such an ambiguous way just to seem impressive. Not having a dig at the writer(s) as they clearly have an eye for setting up a captivating mystery, placing all the right breadcrumbs and having a likeable lead in such a budget, indie game. But it's clear the end has very little payoff but does want to deliver a positive message on mental well-being.
It's tough as not everyone will enjoy this and want a straightforward resolution, and others will admire the very open end. For me, I felt there could have been some more structure and a least a little more context for the kid and his powers at least.
But maybe too simple gameplay? 
Right, one of the main things I have to say about Edengate is how visually beautiful it can be at times. While nothing of AAA games (like the Callisto Protocol …), it still manages to capitulate a strange intensity and mood through its slick and detailed presentation. The use of colour is perfect, the detail in the environments is great and this ran beautifully well for me overall. The visual side of things looks nice and the soundtrack is excellent too, with great voice work from the actor of Mia.
Plus, the opening scene has some of the best eyeball animations I’ve ever seen. Games like Resident Evil 2 Remake have impressive visuals, but the eyes always look dead, and I notice this big time. Even though it was a shot of Mia waking up, the framing, detail and animation really pushed it further for me. And there are a few other moments like this where the artists and designers pushed as much as possible to make the presentation as impressive as possible. Everything from the cluttered hospital hallways, sun-soaked city streets, neon-lit alleyways and otherworldly settings really looked great for an indie title from a small team.
That all said, the gameplay is incredibly limited and Edengate is much a walk stimulating as you’re going to get. I know this term may be considered rather harsh or justly used, but 90% of Edengate is about walking, and the little inclusions of puzzles and set pieces do hit and miss drastically.
Exploration is pretty decent as there are plenty of documentation and findings to discover, adding more to the back story. And there is the odd secret too to make venturing off the path a little worthwhile.
There is no traditional combat as such (unless you count shining bright lights on tentacles combat? Some people do) and there really are only a handful of puzzles, with most of them being incredibly simple. I did have high hopes for the first couple of lateral blockers, which required me to find a date in a book nearby and the other to look at various elements on a periodic table. These were pretty cool, and sadly there was only one other puzzle/set piece involving a sort of mind-bending maze which stood out. Everything else is either moving lights to burn away organic path blocks (big tree-like roots/tentacles) which doesn’t require much else to accomplish or just starting up generators where the instructions on how to do so sit very closely by.
The light beam “puzzles” were a massive missed opportunity, as there could have been some neat situations here to overcome. But all you do is move to one light, manually and slowly move the beat of light as far as it can go and burn away the opposing roots blocking your path. There’s nothing else to add depth to this situation, no powering on the lights (aside from one moment where you turn on a generator which powers on some street lights), moving objects out of the way so the light can shine through or anything cleaver to get your brain twitching.
I did at one point gasp with joy thinking there was a big problem to solve. Mia had to enter a school and a massive root blocked the entrance. On the opposite side of the street was a bus, blocking some industrial size lights and I thought “oh wow, I have to move the bus!”. So I spent ten minutes thinking about how the bus needed to move until I saw a slightly hidden path to another entrance to the school … disappointed. And the generator puzzles are lacking any thought, as you just read a note nearby or on the generator on what buttons you have to press in which order. Again, very disappointing.
Edengate is a gate that surely should have pushed for more interesting puzzles, as some of them are cool. But sadly, the lateral elements are vastly lacking and it made me question, what was the unique point of Edengate overall in terms of gameplay.
The world is cool to explore, and there are some neat problems to solve if a little one notes. But the remainder of puzzles and problems just feel like very light blockers, which the game helps you to solve regardless, so as to not interfere with the story. There is a set piece where you control another character who has the power to grow these pesky roots you see as Mia, and this could have been awesome, but it just revolves around you mostly walking forward and scripted animations of roots growing to unblock your path. There’s one moment you need to press a button to open a door with various roots, but that’s all the interaction this moment you’ll get. Again, sadly a missed opportunity.
There's even some appearance that Mia suffers from Vertigo and this alone could make a compelling game mechanic... but is never explored.
Overall?Edengate has a fascinating setup and it's clear the developers have talent, enough for a much bigger and bolder game. While I liked the presentation, some small puzzles and exploring the world around me, the story left me a little empty and the gameplay for the most part was very lacking in substance. I admire the themes and variety of components the story held, but not the lack of a conclusive or substantial-end, and the gameplay really left me looking at my watch from time to time. I can see there is something here, and there will be people who will find much more with the story (despite it lacking or having some beats which feel unneeded), but the numbing gameplay will leave you wanting something of substance. That all said, the developers clearly have passion and creativity, which I hope they get to unleash in something much bigger next time.
++ Interesting setup and neat narrative elements
+ Good presentation and atmosphere
+ Some neat exploration and lore to find
-- Confusing story elements and lack of substantial-conclusion
-- Lateral gameplay lacks any depth or intrigue
- Lots of walking and not much else
An Xbox Series S/X code for Edengate: Edge of Life was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.
