REVIEW / Welcome to Elk (PC)

Welcome to Elk takes you to an adventure where everyone you meet has a story to tell. All the stories too, by the way, are based on true narratives that the developers have interviewed. To converge all the stories into one, the developers set the game off the North Pole in an area called “Elk Island,” and you take control of a new inhabitant who just landed for work.

In Welcome to Elk you are Frigg, an alternative-looking woman, who has come to Elk Island to help off a local carpenter for experience and work. However, as soon as Frigg lands, she is taken to a party in the local bar, where she meets most of the locals and gets herself embroiled in the town’s drama. Even though Frigg is only there to help them out, the townspeople end up getting close to her and she ends up learning all their deep secrets.

In between her adventure, Frigg comes upon some mini-games that are very lighthearted and fun. One of them is imagining how one of the local’s parents would look and picking a set of eyes, nose, and mouth to put on a balloon. Yeah, some of the mini-games are weird, but sometimes you wonder why it was even necessary. Most of the mini-games do not really serve anything for the narrative, and sometimes are there just to prolong the current scene. However, some may find it fun and would want to replay them again and again.

At the end of each day, the stories Frigg chances upon in Welcome to Elk are transcribed in some weird bottles at her home. Frigg also starts meeting people with their own stories that other locals claim they do not know about. This leaves her trying to figure out where all of these weird phenomena are coming from, and that sets her on her own story that you get to figure out at the end of the game.

All in all, Welcome to Elk is a good heartfelt collection of narratives packaged into a game. You can complete the game in less than four hours, and the mini-games can keep your attention for a while. The main thing though, is that the experiences you will hear about will touch you for a long time.

This review is based on a retail copy of the game provided by the publisher.