Marie’s Room is a free to play short story exploration game about Kelsey, who goes back to her past friend’s room to retrieve her journal and ends up treading through her past memories.
In a world where Life is Strange and What Remains of Edith Finch has been both incredibly successful independent titles, Marie’s Room dials down a notch of the atmosphere and concept from those two and marry it together quite nicely while being a much smaller scale but equally effective game. Marie’s Room is a narrative experience set in pretty much one single room. It takes a journal aspect and the compilation of memories as its main gameplay mechanics. We start the game.in the present as Kelsey who returns to this room with some mysterious memories that have seemingly scarred her. When she picks up the journal, the current empty room is transformed to the past.
The past brings a lot of different elements to the room. Familiar posters and many items to explore strewn across the room reminds us of a normal young adult room. As we explore further, every item you pick up will bring us to Kelsey’s monologue and add a new journal entry. The story is formed through the little items as Kelsey remembers what happened years ago when her and her friend Marie were friends. What caused the crack in their friendship? How was their relationship at the start? What was all this mystery? This narrative experience turned out to be something of an item hunt but one that brought a fruitful result.
There’s a lot to love in Marie’s Room. Item investigation in a walking simulator mechanics has been very popular in the last few years however, with certain elements done right, it can still prove to be an engaging and immersive experience, if not even a little personal. This game gives us a monologue script which is well-written. There are some pieces that fit together like a puzzle in order to reach the final pieces of the story. They are quite easy to decipher but this is a narrative story and not a puzzle game so even adding that in just gives it a little more depth. The room itself has a lot of hidden memories that may not contribute to what happened but rather is a piece of the journal that you can find for a complete experience of this friendship.
For a debut title, Marie’s Room has both beautiful art style reminiscent of Life is Strange, some pop culture references and a lovely soundtrack to match an engaging short story. It’s a one sitting experience, free and done incredibly well with thoughtful and heartfelt moments.
Marie’s Room is currently available for free on Steam.