A great calamity has left Earth decimated with its entire population seemingly erased from existence. All that is left of humanity are the ruins of its once vibrant society. No one knows how or what caused it, as the only survivor - Kosmos - was safely aboard the international space station when life on Earth was suddenly ended. He could only look on in horrified bewilderment as everything he knew was destroyed in an instant.
Fearing that the world's superpowers had erupted into nuclear war, Kosmos enters into a state of cryo-sleep for the next 100 years - preserving himself until he can safely return home and discover the truth about what happened.
The Great Perhaps, a 2D puzzle-platformer, explores the age-old question of "what if". It sees Kosmos, the game's protagonist, intermittently visiting the past in search for clues as to how and why humankind met an untimely end. Equipped with a mysterious lantern that sheds light quite literally on the past, Kosmos is able to explore the ruins of his homeland while simultaneously seeing it as it was during the hours leading up to its destruction.
In theory, the ability to see both timelines at once presents a powerful connection to the world's previous inhabitants as the player progresses through the dilapidated remains of an empty world. While this connection was sparsely felt throughout my play-through, there were a few instances where the fate of certain bystanders that I interacted with in the past could be evidenced through present-day contexts. It was in these moments, though few in number, that I felt the weight of what The Great Perhaps tries to convey.
The mysterious, time-traveling lantern provides an interesting layer of depth by allowing players to view both realities at once. Its default setting projects an ambient view of the past just as a normal lantern would project, well, light, or it can be used to briefly transport Kosmos to the past, where he is able to interact with his surroundings. As you might already be able to guess, most of the game's puzzles require players to alternate between past and present in order to solve them - whether it be to retrieve an item or gain access to an otherwise restricted area.
While I don't think puzzles should be overtly straight-forward, not every puzzle featured in The Great Perhaps made itself apparent. I don't mean that in a "I couldn't figure them out" sort of way, but rather that I didn't know that I had stumbled into one. The voice acting for Kosmos and his morbidly sarcastic AI companion, L9, helps to provide context for what the player should be focusing on at any given point, but I found myself hopelessly confused in a couple of places where there was no indication that I was supposed to be looking for something. Another issue I ran into with one particular puzzle stemmed from how unintuitive and clumsily executed it was. It involved placing items in a bucket, which was an antagonizing chore on its own because there was no indication of when the item was successfully deposited or if it was accidentally discarded. It should be noted that both actions were accompanied by the same animation and without any audio or visual cue to differentiate between the two. On top of that, the items needed to be deposited in a specific order, which was also not prompted effectively or with any indication that I or had not done so.
That said, I realize The Great Perhaps is very much an indie game, and in that regard succeeds at delivering an experience unlike many that I've had. The art style is delightfully reminiscent of a 90's Nickelodeon cartoon (Think Ah! Real Monsters), which I think added to the overall melancholic tone of the subject material. The voice acting, while not sounding particularly inspired, offered some decent exposition throughout the game's roughly two hour story. I came to enjoy Kosmos's character, despite never really being fledged out. L9 on the other hand was aiming for the sarcastic-AI-with-a-dark-sense-of-humor sci-fi trope, which unfortunately did not land for me here.
I will say, the ending left me with more questions than it answered. In fact, it only left me with more questions. I'm not sure if there are any other possible outcomes, but the one I received didn't feel as though the game was finished telling its story. Either that, or The Great Perhaps is attempting to live up to its namesake by leaving things open-ended and without resolution. Admittedly, I was a little confused once I saw the credits roll because, ostensibly, all of my efforts were in vain. This of course raises the question of what was the point? Perhaps we'll never know.