Angela He’s a new life captures the lives of August & May, and how one can experience the titular new life in many different ways during a pandemic.
The pandemic has shown us many things — meetings that could be emails, jobs that could’ve been done from home, and the nature of humans when faced with unprecedented uncertainty. As we hunker down in our homes, relationships take on a whole new meaning. When we’re surrounded by the same people (or lack thereof), what does the “new normal” hold for us? Angela He’s a new life explores this with brutal honesty and a tale that will leave you thinking.
a new life opens with August, a college-going girl who is joined by May during a serendipitous meeting at the cafeteria. You bond over music, May’s art, and hopeless groupmates. You and May start going out, and eventually you move in together. I felt that Angela depicted a wonderful couple going through the throes of life. This is during the Coronavirus pandemic, however, and the game’s aptly named morbigavirus has apparently spread to the area I shared with May.
We planned to get married, and during a conversation, May asks me who I wanted to invite to the ceremony. The game presented me with “friends & family” and “just us”. It really hit home here, because I, the player, would love the opportunity as well and with looming uncertainty of a vaccine, I hit the latter option.
May’s slight disappointment was soon assuaged with a close knit wedding, and wants of a forever ever after. Angela points this out as a bittersweet story, and the replayability hits home for the title in more ways than one. All I know is that I’m happy where I am, and am grateful for what I have. August and May have taught me that life isn’t always about fireworks in the sunset, but the slow lapping of the waves on the shore.
a new life is available now on itch.io, Steam, Google Play, and The App Store.
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