Developer: Matajuegos
Publisher: Matajuegos
Year: 2022
Genre: Adventure
Atuel is a short and free documentary game about the Atuel River Valley in Argentina. The game uses surreal imagery and audio from interviews to explain how the changes people have made to the river, like building dams, impacted the river and everything living around it. The gameplay is a linear walking sim-like experience, which I do not mean in a derogatory way, and has you shapeshifting into different animals and elements, usually downstream, to see the impact of climate change. I was impressed by the variety of environments and art, which changes each time you shapeshift into something new, and how it uses these changes and narration to explain how rivers are like living beings. I thought this was a new game but I guess it actually came out a few years ago on Itch, it’s only just now that it has received a big update and a release on other platforms. I’d highly recommend checking it out. It’s free and only 30 minutes long.