Deer & Boy

Pets have never been more in vogue than they are these days. From Denmark to Mexico, young adults are choosing not to have children in favour of dogs and cats in particular, which can serve as surrogate children, resulting in disproportionately large budgets for pet food and care. More and more people are even choosing to stop eating pigs, cows, and chickens out of concern for these creatures, both large and small. In other words, we are witnessing a veritable love affair, hopefully of the platonic kind, between animals and humans, and this trend naturally spills over into the gaming industry, where the intimate 1:1 relationship between animals and humans is all the rage these days. In recent years alone, I've herded bizarre buffalo-sheep in Herdling, rescued my friends and family with Mui twice in Planet of Lana and its sequel, and on top of that, there are all the horses, dogs, and pocket monsters that pop up like mushrooms on the forest floor.

Of the examples mentioned, Planet of Lana is by far the most obvious game to compare Deer & Boy to. We're dealing with a visually stunning, emotionally charged cinematic puzzle-platformer where your animal companion, at your command, helps you overcome the obstacles that arise along the somewhat random path the duo treads. The cinematic puzzle-platformer genre includes some of my favourite games, but it's also a subgenre that's been stagnating a bit in recent years, and Deer & Boy unfortunately fails to break away from the basic template, one that, for heaven's sake, really needs to be challenged.

I actually think Lifeline Games has good intentions, but aside from the occasional nice visuals and a perfectly fine gameplay feel, there isn't much about Deer & Boy that draws me in. Take, for example, the narrative premise. The titular boy sneaks out the window to go on an adventure. Or is it, in reality, an escape from the sorrow that lurks within his home? His goal is unclear from the start, and it remains that way throughout because Deer & Boy revels so heavily in the metaphorical, probably to focus on the emotional aspect, but with the result that the journey through the beautiful landscapes feels directionless. The encounter with the deer could have been the turning point that revealed our characters' goal, but the presence of this sweet, little creature feels mostly like a gameplay device intended to sprinkle a little spice on the canned flavour that Deer & Boy undeniably has.

The boy jumps, pushes boxes, and activates switches, exactly as the genre dictates, and as mentioned, performing these basic actions feels perfectly fine, but it also feels, well, basic. This is where the deer could have come to the rescue, but the commands you give it are also rudimentary. Compared to the aforementioned Planet of Lana, the challenges lack ingenuity, but unfortunately, they're also sometimes hard to figure out. This is because LifeLine Games likes to use the background as a sort of extra 2D plane. Not a bad idea, but unfortunately, it's poorly executed. It's often hard to tell when you can move "a layer" forward or backward, and as a result, I was repeatedly stuck on my path with no obvious way to proceed, only to discover that I'd overlooked a small ledge that could transport me to the background.

While the "bread-and-butter" gameplay is disappointing, the set pieces, as the genre dictates, have a bit more bite. They're far from unforgettable, but there are a couple of chase sequences that shake up the pace a bit, and the game's climactic sequence, despite its mechanical frustrations, is grand enough to live up to its importance. It comes on the heels of a trek through the desert, where several of your abilities have been taken away and the game's most tedious puzzles are lumped together with uninspiring surroundings as companions, and therefore feels refreshing. The tactic of slowing the pace down to the point of near-drowsiness before the big climax can work well, but the pacing here is off. LifeLine Games simply drags it out too long, perhaps because they're counting on the narrative revelations that emerge during the quiet section to hit harder than they actually do. Deer & Boy tackles a significant theme and it deserves credit for that, but it doesn't do so in a particularly gripping or compelling way. Unfortunately.

Despite good intentions, pretty visuals, a cute deer, and a well-chosen theme, Deer & Boy never comes close to the genre's best games. The rudimentary design screams "my first cinematic puzzle-platformer," and when frustration rears its head regularly while the narrative and emotional aspects never quite hit the mark, well, it's hard to feel anything but dissatisfied. I'd like to like LifeLine Games' debut title because I think the French developer has its heart in the right place, but it needs more work, and with so many excellent alternatives, both with and without animal companions, I can't recommend anyone start here. Instead, play Planet of Lana or Inside if you're curious about the genre. And all of you who are missing more animals in your gaming lives? Well, you've never had more to choose from, so just take it easy and go for a ride instead. There are plenty of places to do that.