Season: A Letter To The Future review - nothing but vibes

Season: A Letter To The Future is a third-person cycling road-trip that puts you in the shoes of a young woman who leaves her small village to explore the world and, hopefully, make some sense of it by documenting what she finds along the way.

This is done by thoroughly exploring the game’s open-world which, while not on the scale of something like Skyrim or Breath Of The Wild, is impressive in its scope and stunning to look at. This isn’t an adventure game in any sense, however. Season asks you from the very beginning to slow down, take a breath, and find the meaning in each moment. There’s a beautifully meditative quality to cycling through fields of flowers and ancient forests, knowing there are no demons to slay or threats to vanquish. Just a girl, looking for answers in an altogether strange world.

You’ll fill your journal by speaking with NPCs, taking pictures on your camera, recording noises with your microphone, and interacting with various objects. As you progress you get to fill in your journal the way you want, deciding how exactly you want the world you’re exploring to be remembered. You can fill pages with photos, sketches, recordings, and the occasional musing from your character. It’s an excellent touch that really helps to make the journey feel like your own. I, for example, spent a good twenty minutes in a field of cows taking photos of each and every one before noting down their names. I regret nothing.

Season is also a feast for the eyes, an explosion of colour that gives the impression you’ve reached inside a painting to find an entire universe beyond it. The abandoned roads, rivers, and fields all have their own stories to tell. Stories of a tragedy long past, and one that’s yet to come. To go into it in too much detail would defeat the entire game’s purpose, but there’s a melancholy air that permeates even the sweetest moments of Season. Developer Scavengers Studio has done an excellent job of capturing the bittersweet glory of that final summer evening before autumn comes.

One particular moment, in which you accompany a young boy on a farewell tour of all his favourite haunts, is particularly affecting. Riding alongside him as he tells you the history of all the little nooks and crannies of his home - a home he’s being forced to evacuate - you gain a new perspective on sights you may already have documented in your journal.

All of the characters you meet are richly drawn, all with their own stories to tell of a world that only half-resembles our own. While the game will always arrive at the same end point, it’s up to you to decide how you tell the story through your approach to documentation. If someone were to read the journal from my playthrough, for instance, they’d know how important cows are.

There’s some light puzzling in Season, too, although nothing that will ever really challenge your brain. Certain pages of the journal ask you to answer specific questions by tracking down specific items and taking photos of certain objects. However, these pages make it pretty clear what exactly you need to be looking for at any given moment, meaning you won’t ever be straining your cranium for too long.

In a different world I feel like Season could have been an incredible mystery adventure in the style of Return Of The Obra-Dinn, completely letting go of your hand and leaving you to slowly piece together why the world is the way it is. As it stands, it’s kind of like that, but is far more concerned with making sure you feel guided and, more importantly, relaxed at all times. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Season has a vibe, and that vibe is all about brewing up a chamomile, settling down under a blanket, and enjoying the ride.

Pros: Looks and sounds beautiful, fascinating world, loads to see before the credits roll

Cons: Map can be a little tricky to work out occasionally, perhaps a little too slow for its own good at times

For fans of: Journey, The Witness, Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture

8/10: Excellent

Season: A Letter To The Future is available January 31 for PlayStation 5 (version tested) PlayStation 4, and PC via Steam. Code for review was supplied by the publisher.

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