While stylistically unique, Season is poised to be another game to join an ever-growing list that allows players to explore and capture photos of a vibrant open world, contributing to the increasingly popular trend of photography games that have sprung up in recent years. Unlike these like-minded games, however, it appears that Season is going to deliver on far more than just picturesque snapshots and the raw beauty of the world’s sound.
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Season Captures Life Itself
It’s said that a picture is worth a thousand words, and evidently, this seems to be the mantra Season is approaching players with as it sets the stage for a world full of characters with rich stories to tell and mysterious areas to explore. Two core mechanics have been demonstrated in the latest State of Play showcase, one providing a glimpse at how the player can take snapshots of everything and anything, and the other a microphone ready to capture any sounds, voices, or music the player might want to record. Season appears to present an ethos of immortalizing the finite, as the trailer goes on to provide an enigmatic introduction to a community of places and people that shall all be mysteriously gone within a season, hence the game’s title.
But this isn’t a new concept, as recent games such as Toem and Pupperazzi incorporate the mechanic of photography into their game design. While Pupperazzi takes a more candid, camp tone that feels more like a collectathon than exploration and experimentation, Toem in particular is the best comparison to the upcoming Season. It, too, takes the player on an adventure through a stylized world full of interesting characters and locations with the player being freely able to take photos of anything they’d like. Toem differs, though, as it sets the player on a self-serving journey across the game’s world, completing quests along the way and presenting an untold narrative to the player for them to discover.
Season appears to be promising an altogether more sophisticated, grander experience, all lensed through the player’s personal experience with the game and how they choose to play. With rich color and an additional depth of sound and dynamic interactions, Season is elevating the photography gameplay experiences offered in previous games. From the current trailers provided and the aforementioned mysterious cataclysm that draws near to the end of the season, it feels like it has a bittersweet but utterly fantastical tale to tell - even the game’s subtitle, A Letter To The Future, promises an air of mystery.
Whether the game will lean more on its characters or its locations, the stories told or the stories uncovered, all will remain to be seen with the game’s official release. But 2022 is promising to bring a diverse range of games that are treading new waters to deliver unique playing experiences, from Stray to Season: A Letter To The Future.
Season: A Letter To The Future is set to be released in Autumn 2022 for PC, PS4 and PS5.
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