Recent reviews by JayMania

If you like Fire Pro or just wrestling in general, this is a must have! It has some rough spots at the moment, but the core gameplay is incredible. Full recommendation.

Emily is Away Too is simply fantastic.

I also reviewed the first Emily is Away, so everything I said stands. Nostalgia is a very powerful tool and 99% of shameless plays on that never work on me, but this game truly puts me back over a decade ago. That was true of the first one, and with the inclusion of websites, music and imagery of the time, it's even more true with Emily is Away 2.

What is most astounding about this sequel, is how truly clever it is in comparison to its predecessor. EiA was very basic, in the idea of it having branching paths and all the work was in the AIM style, but EiA2 builds on these mechanics and tells stories in not only the AIM conversations, but through 2006 versions of popular websites. It uses the culture of the time, and what your tastes were THEN to characterize the personalities of these characters. You learn about people you never talk to simply because of the YouToob URL in their Buddy Profile or the survey they filled out on their Facenook page.

I do not want to spoil any of the endlessly surprising tricks developer Kyle Seeley has injected in this game, but the biggest compliment I can give is how immersive and real this game feels. I never thought the most intense gaming moment of my year would come from a text adventure, but here we are.

My only complaint is length, with my initial playthrough being around 2 hours, but it has a ton of different paths and endings.

That being said, I don't think I will do another playthrough. This is such an immersive game that I feel going back and making different decisions would be dishonest to the experience I just had. Choices matter, and I made some poor ones. I will just have to live with that.

$5 is an extremely fair price for this type of game. I'd even argue its generous for just how much work has gone into every detail of this experience. I can recommend without hesitation to buy this if you have even the tiniest bit of nostalgia for the 2006 era of the internet when AIM was how we confessed our feelings and YTMND was how we made each other laugh.

Jay has signed off.

There are plenty of reviews that have gone into detail regarding the problems with this game and I agree with all of them. This game is incredible thematically, but ultimately, the story doesn’t go in any extraordinary directions. That being said, it is a free game that is very relatable and will strike a chord with many of my generation.

Shortly after finishing this, I logged onto AIM for the first time in many years, which is related to the game's biggest strength; the game is successful at evoking a nostalgic sense of missed opportunity and a longing for what could have been.

I honestly hope this is a proof of concept for a grander idea, because I really wanted to spend more time in this pseudo-Windows XP interface, picking new buddy icons that would correlate to my tastes at the time. It simply needs MORE, and I hope the creators don’t stop toying with this idea here.

The atmosphere and attention to detail make this worth the short play time and with an entry fee of 0, there is truly no reason to pass on this experience.

Jay has signed off