The game now acts more like how AOL Instant Messenger was what I mean is, everything you do in the game is through the guise of an instant messenger window instead of a recreation of a desktop with the application.

The other big change comes in the form of an interactive recreation of 2006 Internet with.

While it’s easy to replay a chapter and get the exact outcome you want, robbing the game of any dramatic effect, at least you can be an active part of the plotline and avoid some of the negative aspects that plagued the first game (specifically, the scene where you may have unintentionally raped Emily). Choices you make in conversations with Emily and Evelyn, the two ladies of interest, will see you either ending up with one of them or ending up alone. The biggest change to the narrative design in Emily is Away Too is that you have more direct control over the branching paths. So what could a sequel possibly add to that? How about two potential love interests and multiple endings!Įmily is Away Too (PC, Mac, Linux) It wasn’t perfect (the characters were basically one-dimensional), but Emily is Away was effective in at least capturing a time period that seemed to disappear overnight. By that same measure, it made me realize that I’m not the only person to have felt the same way in such a situation, even if I beat myself up over my choices every day. It was heartbreaking to see my own mistakes and know what I could have done to prevent them. Maybe that was due more to the accurate recreation of Windows XP and AOL Instant Messenger from 2002 (even if it was in pixel art), but I had experienced many of the same scenarios the game covered. Emily is Away wasn’t the first visual novel I had ever played, but one of the few to transport me into a period of my life I thought I left behind.

Emily is away