Release date: November 3rd 2019

Developers: Bob De Schutter & AIMS

Website: http://www.brukelgame.com/

Genre&Topics: adventure, drama, mistery, thrilling, gaminiscing, memories of the past, history, narrative, visionary

Sometimes I receive on my Steam curator page unexpected indie games that makes my eyes open wide! That’s the case of Brukel. Released on november 3rd 2019, it’s developed by Professor of Applied Game Design Bob De Schutter with the aid of students of the AIMS department at Miami University of Ohio. I’m going to split the review in two parts; you can read the first one before to play and the second one only after completing the game. The less you read about Burkel before to play, the better your game experience!

Brukel is a first person view 3D adventure set in an old farmhouse near the town of Geel (Belgium, Fiandre). Burkel is the name of the street where the farmhouse is placed. It was the house where Bie Verlinden, De Schutter’s grandmother, spent her childhood. The farm exists still today, but not as depicted in the game; it has been virtually rebuilt in accordance with old photos and Bie’s reminiscences.

You’re in the shoes of Bob De Schutter exploring the old abandoned farmhouse. When you were young, grandmother told you a lot of stories about her youth in Burkel. Now, you’ve decided to dig deep in your family past; you think you can bring out a good video game from this! You recorded her voice memories on your smartphone and made a list of furnitures and reminiscences to check into the house. When you find items in your list, e.g. the old stove, you take a photo with your smartphone and listen to the related grandmother’s memory. You can listen to the real voice of 93 y.o. Bie speaking Flemish. Don’t worry, there are english, italian, german, dutch, spanish and russian subtitles. Before the game development, Bob interviewed his grandmother; Bie could not act and could not remember very well the whole story from start to end; so Bob made several sessions for recording disconnected pieces of her memory and spent so many times for assembling them in a coherent story. As consequence, while playing you can listen to a lot of short documentary recordings that together make up a genuine and precious historical testimony.

As time passes and you keep exploring, the house takes you on an emotional journey through some of the dramatic events that Bie lived through. The more you dig in the past, the more the past gets confused with and takes over the present. You find yourself witnessing surprising events from the past in the shoes of people who lived in the house…

Such compenetration between reality and fiction, past and present, is not new in expressive arts; biographical elements are common in literature, cinema, etc. Nevertheless interactivity gives it a boost, one more extra dimension. You are embodied in Bob’s avatar, you’re Bob, and you are immersed in the virtual old farmhouse; you’re inside the story, you keep the story going by interacting with environment. You can feel on your skin and in real time the progressive confusion between reality and fiction, past and present; house is continuosly changing around you… You’re Bob but at the same time you’re the 18 y.o. Bie and all the other people in the house in 1944…

It’s not only exploring, taking photo and listening to Bie’s memories; it’s even escaping rooms, solving environmental puzzles and unveil the misteries of the old abandoned house…

Brukel offers you a wide range of emotions: nostalgy, mistery, drama, thrilling and… I can say no more, sorry! 😉

Playtime is around 1 hour – 1 hour and half; story is divided in chapters that progress following your quests, so time is relative to you. I suggest you to keep it calm, explore everywhere and take photo of everything you see, don’t be in a hurry to complete quests and puzzles. It’s an intense adventure because of the short playtime, the diversity of mechanics, the compelling story and the variety of narrative registers. It’s not properly what you’re expecting…

Brukel is able to tell engaging story and convey deep contents of universal value through simple interactive mechanics; it has something of educational, but is not an educational game at all! It’s just a piece of expressive art and interactive narration; we’re not used to such artistic and narrative approach to our beloved medium. The more development tools evolve, the more small creative teams can afford them, the more games as Brukel are coming. Mainstream industry and consumers, with rare exceptions, are focused just on traditional challenging games for easy entertainment, overlooking the narrative and expressive power of games meant as immersive interactive virtual experiences for mature people. It’s not so easy to change habits of industry and consumers. If Brukel had been a triple A production, it could have been a true masterpiece! By the way, despite low budget and limited technical and human resources, it comes with some effective visionary scenes. Poverty of production is balanced by very good creative direction. It could be polished further, some graphic glitches and polygons compenetrations are still there, however they don’t compromise the whole experience. Environmental puzzles design and interactions with environment and items could be better, by the way they fit narration. Brukel is a great achievement in interactive narration. Story is told in real time through interactive mechanics, there are just some exceptions, a couple of cut scenes in the beginning and in the middle.

That’s all for the first part of my review; I hope I stimulated you to play the game, it deserves your attention! I can understand if you want to wait for next special sales; price is around 10 $\euro, maybe 8 $\euro would be better because of short playtime; by the way longevity is higher, because it’s very hard to listen to all Bie’s memories in the first run, you need at least a second run.

Following De Schutter, Brukel is recommended to “fans of Gone Home, Silent Hill, Firewatch, This War Of Mine, Layers of Fear, The First Tree and Stranger Things”.

Second part of the review. You’re advised: A LOT OF SPOILERS HERE!

If you completed the game, now you can understand what I was hiding: war and horror!

I liked so much the abrupt change of narrative register in the 2° chapter. In the whole first chapter you are engaged in peaceful exploration and taking photos, lulled by the pleasant feeling of nostalgy. Horror of WWII comes abruptly from the past and completely shocks your virtual experience. Bie’s dramatic memories suck you and the entire house in a different dimension where past overwhelms present; but it’s not just a time travel, it’s a journey in the supernatural dimension where traumatic memories, fears and sorrows become ghosts. Farmhouse itself seems animated by evil forces, environment changes continuosly; rooms, furnitures, walls, etc. are transforming everytime you open or close doors or turn back. That’s the same mechanic as in Layers of Fear, but this time it’s used for expressive and narrative purposes. Bob De Schutter succeeds where Bloober Team failed. Bloober Team introduced in Layers of Fear and Observer the mechanic of the ever changing environment triggered by player inputs; it’s a great achievement in interaction, but it’s just like to be in the ghost house of an amusement park! Bloober Team cannot step away from the ludic and disengaged approach to video games. De Schutter makes one step forward, in his hands the same mechanic becomes a powerful expressive and narrative tool. Bravo!

Brukel is like a visionary and psychedelic movie about horrors and anguishes of war, it reminded me of Jacob’s Ladder by Adrian Lyne; but you’re not a passive spectator, you’re inside the story, your interactions with environment keep narration going.

Well, such inspired idea deserved greater budget and resources; interactivity is poor and limited, environment transformation has not the same aesthetic impact as in Layers of Fear, graphics is poor. However, it works great for narrative purposes.

I loved so much the ending visionary scene where you leave the house, find yourself in the middle of the battlefield sorrounded by bombs and bullets, and take refuge in the barn. It’s completely in real time, no cut scene here. The barn burns, a screaming pig engulfed in flames runs from the bottom, you’re surrounded by fire, you’re in panic, you try to open the main door in vain, a spectral voice calls you, you turn back searching for the voice, you see the ghost calling you between the flames, you follow the ghost, you succeed to go through the flames and open the back door, an haunting full moon enlights the tomb and the ghost of Bie’s sister, Bertha, a simple gesture of the ghost and you’re expelled from that damned dimension and return to the present! All this in real time, no cut scenes, no interruption of gameplay! You’re just driven by Bie’s and Bertha’s voices triggered by environmental interaction. That’s a superb way to express all the drama of young Bie’s traumatic experience; you can touch it with your hands and feel on your skin the tragedy of WWII, it’s like to be there! WOW! Applause! That’s VGArt revolution becoming reality! Congratulations Bob, you made me happy and hopeful! This sequence should be studied by young developers as great example of interactive narration, and celebrated just as cinema lovers celebrate great movies sequences! Low budget and limited graphic resources take away a bit of charm, but the narrative power is unquestionable.

As anticipated in the first part of the review, Brukel is the name of the street in the town of Geel (Belgium, Fiandre) where the farmhouse is placed . Reminiscences of Bie refer to the crucial battle for the liberation of Belgium, known as Battle of the Geel Bridgehead. It’s all true, the farmhouse was in the middle of two opposite fronts, Germans on one side and English on the other. That’s the reason why both english and german soldiers were entering and leaving continuosly the house. It’s not properly an educational game, Bie’s memories are not reliable historical sources, just memories of an old woman; storytelling is romanced and not documentary, spanning from mistery to horror. By the way it allows the player to virtually experience in first person real past events concerning WWII.

It’s beautiful to know that Video Games can transmit from old to new generations memories that otherwise would be lost. It’s very important that new generations don’t forget the horrors of WWII. It is even more important that new generations understand mistakes of the past that caused such tragic and extreme event, so to make it not happen again. New generations should understand even the great effort spent by humanity in the post-war era for repairing and avoiding past mistakes. Unfortunately, it seems that nowadays humanity has forgotten the lesson; it seems that we are experiencing a new era of individualism, social disengagement, inequality, financial speculation, ignorance, oppression, echological crisis and global deregulation. Well, maybe next title by Bob De Schutter will address such topics!

De Schutter calls “gaminiscing”, game+reminiscing, the art of combining authentic oral history with game mechanics to revive the past. Is he referring to historical games based on real events experienced in first person? Well, I cannot remember other similar games right now. Attentat 1942 is a fictive story based on real historical events but not experienced in first person view. There are a lot of autobiographical games, e.g. That Dragon: Cancer, Papo & Yo, Night in The Woods, The First Tree, Fragments of Him, etc., but they are not about historical events. Brukel is the first of this kind.

Well, that’s all. No rating here, because there is too much difference between great direction, powerful expressive features and state-of-the-art interactive narration on one side, and technical and graphic limits due to short budget and resources on the other side. No vote can do justice to such piece of art. Don’t miss it!

L.F.