We should talk. elegantly expresses the staggering power of a seemingly-simple word choice, demonstrating how it save or devastate your relationships and connections.
Words carry an incredible power – one we can be a bit too cavalier in using at times. Whether out of anger, or not thinking too hard, or frustration, or whatever reason, we can phrase what we mean in ways that we don’t intend. Or, perhaps these are our deepest, darkest intentions – things we didn’t want to bring to light because we knew the fight that would come next. We often speak off-handedly, but in times of powerful emotion, a single word chosen poorly or very carefully can completely change your entire life.
It’s not a subject that games explore often. The complexities of language, in many titles, don’t go farther than choosing the right sentence at the right time. This game has you choosing every single word in the sentences you say to friends and strangers at the bar, as well as to your partner over texts on the phone. You’ll craft your conversations however you please, taking on certain tones with loved ones and strangers you want to impress, using language to shape how you’re perceived by all of them. It’s our use of language that shapes who we are, after all, to the people we choose to communicate with.
The game (which I’ve been intrigued by for some time) takes you down several different routes depending on how you convey yourself with language, guiding the evening and your relationships with your words. It all flows together so fluidly, feeling so natural as you make the minute, yet important choices of what words you speak. It lets you choose who you want to be in this world, and in doing so helps you appreciate the power of your words a bit more. Not that many of us don’t already know how devastating a single poor word choice can be in a heated argument with a partner, or how easily we can be misunderstood in text and in person, but this game gives us a safe playground to deeply examine how much our words matter.
We should talk. is a thoughtful exploration of the weight of what we say, allowing us a place to toy with these concepts carefully while still seeing their massive ramifications. It’s charming and intimate in the connections it makes with its characters, feeling stunningly real in how it reacts to you. It’s in reminding us what a single word can do – to ruin as well as create unbreakable bonds – that it becomes one of the most incredible games of 2020.
We should talk. is available now on the Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One, itch.io, and Steam.
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