MapFriend wants you to take a look around a new place and learn about it through an older navigation program. Although you may not like what you find.
The game opens with a map, some areas of interest nearby, and some quiet music playing. Those tunes would grow steadily stranger and more insistent as you dig deeper into the world, but at first, things were just subtly nerve-wracking. It’s the kind of fear you feel when you’re a bit lost in a place you don’t know. You’re not afraid for your life, yet, but you’ve got this nagging sensation that you’re not sure how to get back to safety. You’ve taken steps into someplace that could be dangerous. You’re still semi-sure you could make it back, though. You’re still able to push those fears aside. You’re FINE, you tell yourself. This game captures that sensation as you set your little character down onto some of the map locations and look around.
As you get to know the area, you’ll creep around the map, either through the bird’s-eye-view or on-foot modes. You can move more of the map quickly in the former, letting you see locations of interest with ease. The latter is slower, but you get to feel more like you’re genuinely exploring despite the simulated old tech. It feels really strange to be walking around these empty digital places, though. It’s a feeling that gets worse and worse as you learn more about the world. Well, learn more about how you’re probably not supposed to know some of these things. That there’s something permeating the world and program that is going to show you something you can’t un-know once it’s unveiled.
MapFriend is brief but chilling as its music grows in intensity and the world starts to close in around you and that forbidden knowledge. Excellent, chilling stuff that will have me just a little bit worried to use Google Maps for the rest of my life.
MapFriend is available now on itch.io.
About The Author
