Fragments of Him

Gameplay

Fragments of Him is a first-person narrative-based video game set around the death of a bisexual man named Will. The player controls four characters, each of whom was connected to Will during his lifetime. The characters consist of: Will, who dies in a car crash early in the game; Sarah, Will's ex-girlfriend; Harry, Will's boyfriend at the time of his death; and Mary, Will's grandmother. The gameplay has the player character walk around the world, with the player triggering snippets of narration by clicking on highlighted objects. When interacting with non-player characters, clicking on them will sometimes result in them disappearing and reappearing in a different location to give the impression of them walking.

As the player progresses through the game, the perspective changes from Will's, to Sarah's, to Mary's and finally to Harry's. It becomes apparent that the story is not only based on Will's life, but also those of other characters and how they cope with his death. During Sarah's portrayal she says "Let me set the scene..." and during this part of the game the player clicks on objects that slowly turn the setting into a pub. After a few pieces of dialogue, the player clicks again to make it all disappear. During Harry's section, the player clicks on objects that remind Harry of Will. In some parts of the game, the player clicks on other characters to make them move forward, suggesting the idea of snapshots based on their memories. Once the player has clicked on enough objects, a meter becomes full and that triggers the next part of the game.

Development and release

Fragments of Him originally stemmed from an idea developed at a game jam called the Ludum Dare. The game originally had players removing objects while the main character became more and more depressed. Mata Haggis, one of the developers of Fragments of Him, told the Rock, Paper, Shotgun blog that in the final version there would be more mechanics than just removing objects. He said that there would be choices to be made, and that the story would branch off from the choices. The prototype of the game focused only on the boyfriend, while the full version was to include four different character perspectives. He described the gameplay style as a mix of Heavy Rain and Gone Home. Haggis told Nathan Grayson of the Kotaku blog that many of the objects in the game, such as hotels and parks, were based on his real-life experiences of when he lost a friend.

The game was released on the web gaming portal Kongregate in 2013. In December 2013, the game received funding from Mediafonds, a Dutch organisation. During the 2015 GaymerX in San Jose, California, the video game was demoed. About three years after the release of the original prototype, the full game, which was developed and published by Sassybot, a three-man indie game studio in the Netherlands, was released on 3 May 2016 for Microsoft Windows and 1 June 2016 for Xbox One, with the PlayStation 4 version set for release later in 2016. The developers tested and demoed the game during the 2016 Game Developers Conference and said that they experienced people crying while playing the game at their booth and that this was the reaction for which they had hoped.

Reception

The PC and Xbox One releases of Fragments of Him received "mixed or average" reviews, according to the review aggregator site Metacritic. Reviewers said that because of the graphics, as well as the slow pace of the game, it was obviously created for casual gamers. Bob Richardson of the website RPGFan said that it might not be for everyone, and would appeal to those who like relaxing video games. He said that the design of the graphics might be too minimalistic for today, although he liked it and thought that it worked well with the game. He said that it was worth trying out and that the time the creators had put into making the game was obvious. Jose Rodriguez of the website IGN praised the "deep and realistic" story and said that the game gave priority to the narrative, and that it will appeal to casual gamers because of its realism and leisurely gameplay. Rodriguez criticised the duration of the game saying, that it is quite short for its price. Andrea Maderna, also from IGN, said that the game was not suited for everybody, but that those who appreciate games based on interactive storytelling should try playing it.

Colin Campbell from the website Polygon described the game as "emotional" and compared the "gloomy visual tones" to another video game, That Dragon, Cancer. Campbell said that Fragments of Him took time to rise to its emotional peak but when it does, it reaches it "with a searing and open humanity that connects the player with each of [the game's] characters". He continued by saying that the game contained excellent voice acting and writing. Laura Kate Dale, writing for the blog Destructoid, also compared Fragments of Him to That Dragon, Cancer.

Many reviewers praised the game's narrative. Andrea Maderna said that it gave off an emotional vibe and had fantastic narrative choices and structure, though the player's role is limited. Laura Kate Dale was disappointed, saying that the narrative would shine more in the form of a short film as it seemed more impressive when it was a "five minute convention floor demo than as a two and a half hour long finished product". Eric Swain, of the on-line magazine PopMatters, said that he found himself asking "Why is this a game?", and suggested that it would work better as an audio drama.

The game's repetitiveness was criticised by many reviewers. Sam Zucchi of Kill Screen said that the game got tedious and that the repetitiveness of clicking on objects was sometimes trivial. He said that it was as though the game was saying: "No, you really don't understand. Let me show you". Alessandro Baravalle of Eurogamer said that although parts of the game were poorly managed or redundant, it did have some exciting moments. Eric Swain said that the story is great but the game as a whole is let down by the repetitiveness of some parts and, as a result, becomes exhausting to play.