linger in shadows

I purchased Linger in Shadows last night for $2.99 on the Playstation Store. I’ll have you know that it’s very confusing when thinking of a way to describe the concept behind Linger in Shadows. It’s not really game, nor a tech demo, as much is it as an interactive short film.

According to Plastic (the group behind Linger in Shadows), Linger in Shadows is simply an interactive piece of visual and audible art. Nothing more and in that sense it’s so difficult to really ever give it a thumbs up or a thumbs down other than to say it exists. In fact I’m not even sure if I can use the correct vocabulary to describe such a thing as it’s so new. However, I will not ever refer to it as a game, because it isn’t.

It’s also very difficult to classify something downloaded from the Playstation Store onto a PS3, a piece of art. It’s definitely not an “original” piece of art as it’s supplies are infinite but it’s been truly original in getting me to think about how we tend to view art. In fact it’s so advanced that art books and art professors probably won’t recognize it as art for a while.

I’m not going to spoil the “story” of the piece and in fact I don’t even know if I’ve received the correct ending as the interactive parts of the piece function as puzzle elements. You can pause, fast forward, play, rewind, rotate certain objects, and even turn lights on and off inside of the interactive film.

The graphics of the piece are also really interesting because while not pushing the PS3 completely, they do manage to do some wicked weird oil painting effects on some of the characters and objects, plus the motion capture Plastic did for a gigantic cat is really awesome as well.

Overall it as a good three dollars spent as I had never “played” nor seen anything like Linger in Shadows before one. On one hand it’s good to see something so minimal and so interesting come to the PS3, but the other I just want to tell Plastic to cut the artsy fartsy and make a real game because the style of Linger in Shadows is just that endearing and all too short.