In Retrospect Review

In Retrospect is one of the titles that is more of an experience than just an endless runner. You begin the game in the clouds with a character named Dee. She will be your guide as you go back through your memories of all the stages of your life. By playing through these levels, you will create your own story based on which of the six items you choose to collect: wealth, money, education, creativity, spirituality, or love. This game has you reevaluating your life, the relationships you have, your career, and all those things that you value.

In Retrospect has ten different levels, each depicting a decade of your life. In this runner, you will pick up collectables that portray the things people usually value during their lives. There will be obstacles like birds, blades, and fires to try to avoid while running through each of these stages. You will learn a couple different moves like a jump, double jump, and using a jump in combination with the d-pad to perform a long jump. This will help you avoid obstacles and broader hazards that a regular jump couldn't clear. The game seems incredibly easy at first, but as you progress through the stages, the difficulty increases just like life itself. 

The collectables you will "focus" on will help create your story. Though you need to pay very close attention and be very deliberate with your moves to try and only pick up the item that you want. There are tokens placed all around the stage, and since you can't stop running or backtrack, it's sometimes tricky to collect the item you want. Plus, they are used to replenish your health bar, so you can't be too picky when it's low! If you die during one of the levels, after a flash of red, you are presented with text saying, "Is that how it really happened?" This makes sense since you are supposed to live through your life's stages. The amount of each collectable you get will determine where the story goes next. If you focus on wealth, you will be taken to a store where you can purchase upgrades like keys, 50% more health, or 50 tokens of a different type to go towards your total for the next stage. Or if you focus on education, you will get tips that will give you hints for the upcoming level.

You will be reliving your memories through an 8-bit pixelated world. Accompanying you is a great soundtrack that fits well with the high-speed and sometimes serious feel of the game. On most levels you will run straight through the stage with a bit of jumping and swimming to collect items and avoid hazards. As you progress, others will have the stage spinning around, tilted on its side, or utterly dark, making you feel disoriented and lost. If you are photosensitive, please be aware that there are times when the screen flashes a considerable amount, most noticeably as you get towards the end of the stage. Trying to navigate a level and jump in the right direction to overcome obstacles is amazingly challenging!

When you complete a stage, Dee will ask you to tell her what happened next; it felt like seeing a counsellor or a psychologist. There are four choices to select from, but you only have a second to answer, so you can't sit and think about it. You will have to make a snap decision which probably makes it more accurate as you can't contemplate which answer to choose. As you play through each stage, you will unlock a challenge level to try and get a high score. If you create an online profile, your scores will be put on the In Retrospect leaderboards to see how you compare with other players challenging those levels. You will collect as many bubbles as possible; there is no death, but you will lose points if you run into an enemy or a hazard. Each challenge has a different difficulty setting and list of which moves will be available to use during your run.  

In Retrospect will probably only take you a few hours to complete the story. Still, the challenges will offer more replayability for players. I may try to play through the main story again, trying to focus on one of the other areas that I wasn't able to achieve the first time, as now I am more familiar with how they work, and I know that you really need to pay attention to collect the token that you want. Paper Salamander Games has created a challenging little runner that gets you thinking about your life and what matters to you.