by Amr (@siegarettes)

• Feather
• Developer: Samurai Punk
• Publisher: Samurai Punk
• PC, Switch

Stripped down to its movement and topography, Feather aims to bring joy through flight and freeform exploration. No objectives or progression, only the island and your wings.

It works–mostly. Movement gives off a sense of lightness, with climbing and diving between altitudes coming easily, and directional reversals at a button’s touch. Whether skimming the surface of the ocean or the clouds Feather makes the breeze at your wings a tangible presence. And while movement in itself is one of the easy joys of games, without context it’s difficult to keep it compelling for long.

Feather relies on its expressionist landscapes and monuments to pull you through. It might lack formal objectives, but these monuments draw the eye and give natural paths to move through. If I see a path of arches my natural thought will be to see if I can thread my way through them. Monuments are often decorated with a gate as well, each which change the music to a different track.

Between the monuments, changing time of day, fruit lined trees, and gates that teleport you to high altitudes too see the island from above, Feather creates a variance in mood that keeps the world from feeling totally static. Despite that it’s hard not to notice the lack of other wildlife, and while the passive multiplayer does populate the world with other birds, it feels lonely with only ruins and plants to keep you company.

Feather’s freeform space and breezy movement give it a playful, impressionistic feeling, but without other wildlife there’s a strange melancholy to it. Exploring its ruin dotted landscapes, I couldn’t help but wonder what happened to the lives that used to populate this island.