Games seem to always draw on the same pool of themes and ideas. This makes sense, as utilising these concepts provides a framework that the player is undoubtedly familiar with. So Long, My World takes a different approach. Drawing on the very nature of human self-awareness, and the structure of reality itself, the game appears to deliver a familiar play experience in a new way.
Axis Mundi, the publisher of So Long, My World, provided me with the rules to look over. At its core the game is focused on resource and hand management. Players visit locations to acquire one of five resource types. These resources are used to play card abilities, which include effecting resources or drawing additional cards. All cards have a point value, and at the end of the game the value of the cards a player has used is totalled to find a winner.
Where So Long, My World looks to shake things up is in its execution. The conceit of the games is that humanity is on the verge of disappearing. A mysterious event is happening; people are quickly dying one after another. In a few hours all humans will be gone.
Players take on the role of themselves, essentially. With nowhere to run, people have turned to achieving a higher state of self-awareness. There is limited time to do, well, anything. So humanity falls back to the most extreme level of actions and emotions.
In essence So Long, My World asks the age old philosophical question of “Who am I?” and rolls that query into a game. To support this direction the artwork is mostly black and white, very detailed but also quite sparse and ethereal. The Vision cards, the locations the players visit to gain resources, are fully illustrated but still fit into the visual style of the rest of the game.
As for the game itself, it looks like it is a pretty solid resource and card drafting game. There seems to be some good player interaction included, with players able to affect each other through card abilities as well as placement on Vision cards.
Because of the theme, and the execution of it on elements like the cards and rule book, the whole game can feel a little dreary or dour. However I don’t believe games have to be comfortable or generic to be interesting. Providing a game which challenges players on an emotional level is a brave choice, but results in a truly unique look.
Of course, in the end though, it all comes down to gameplay. So Long, My World looks like it hits all the right beats to offer players a tactical and replayable experience. Good reason to look up the Kickstarter when it launches to check out gameplay videos.
So Long, My World is set to launch on Kickstarter in the second quarter of this year. It is designed by Enrica Fincati and Francesco Simioni, and will be published by Axis Mundi. You can sign up for notifications about the game on the Axis Mundi website.
