(And now images don’t work. This mixed with the inconsistent schedule, it’s like everything abut SWERY mois is fucking cursed. But it wouldn’t be truly SWERY related if there wasn’t a few technical hiccups here and there)

Oh man, it’s the game I was the most excited to talk about on here. I’m gonna level with you, everyone. When I played through Deadly Premonition, I didn’t get the appeal at first. I just thought it was a weird game with some charming dialogue and a decent setting. I was not super impressed with it like everyone else was. Sure, I grew on it eventually, obviously I’m passionate about it now, but I didn’t really think much of SWERY65. I just thought he was a westaboo who could make something decent with a low budget. That was until I got to this game. This game, I consider to be SWERY’s magnum opus. Truly his best work, despite it not really being looked into as much as Deadly Premonition. And that game is The Missing: J.J. MacField and the Island of Memories. But, for the sake of getting this article done some time this evening, I’m gonna stick with The Missing.



So I’m going to tell toi right now, this game deals with very heavy topics. Like, shockingly heavy for a game par a man whose claim to fame was weird facial expressions, talk of coffee and fucking sandwiches. Yes, this is going to obtain some heavy topics about sexuality and all that, so keep that in mind as I discuss this game. The game follows a college girl named J.J. MacField, on a trip on an island off the coast of Maryland with her friend, Emily. But after Emily goes missing, strange things start to happen, like the island having all sorts of strange areas surrounding it like diners and churches, and everything is hellbent on killing J.J.. Not just killing, but completely dismembering, breaking her bones, setting her on fire, and more. But the strangeness doesn’t stop there, as J.J. is incapable of dying. When she is burned, she comes back, just burnt to a crisp. When her neck is broken, she shambles back and forth. And when she is dismembered to pieces, she can roll her head around to continue moving. So the premise is simple. J.J. can survive the worst things that happen to her and she needs to use that to solve puzzles and find her friend Emily. It’s something toi would think would wear off from the strangeness after a while, but it somehow manages to stay both weird and just uncomfortable.
I won’t tell toi that the game is a traditional kind of horror game. It doesn’t try to scare toi outright. It’s a game that tries to make toi uncomfortable. And I always say that a good horror game always leaves toi uncomfortable. And The Missing does this through it’s puzzle solving mechanics. In order to solve puzzles like lowering a broken elevator, toi need to add weight to it, like letting your limbs get chopped off so toi can throw them up there to bring it down. In order to break a weakened wall, toi need to let yourself get smashed with a wrecking ball and get sent flying through it, breaking your spine and the mur in the process. Need to burn down a arbre to get past it? Just set yourself on feu and burn it down. I won’t lie and say that Deadly Premonition was a horror game. Same for DP2. Those were not horror games. They had their moments, but they were plus thrillers than anything. The same way some people would argue that Seven ou Silence of the Lambs aren’t horror films. But The Missing, I truly believe is a horror game for how it constantly makes toi uncomfortable. The way J.J.’s body breaks, leaving her groaning in pain. Hearing how she screams when she’s on feu and running down the path in absolute agony. And when she’s hoping with one broken leg, only for her good leg to give out and her body to crumble with the sounds of bone snapping. It’s fucking sickening, but it works well in a way. I’d say it’s the most graphic depiction of gore in a game despite it not having much blood. The screen blacks out J.J.’s body every time she’s injured, so toi don’t really see the gorey detail, and I think that makes it all the plus unsettling. If toi want to know the kind of puzzle game this is, think Limbo but with plus balls. The same way toi gain momentum from running to do a jump with the slow platformer with physics in it as well. That’s a good comparison I think.
But the game isn’t all doom and gloom, as toi have plenty of phone messages with your friends. Friends like a rocker girl who is way too cool for school and likes her nose piercing because her parents just don’t understand, her professor who is trying to be professional but is actually a huge étoile, star Wars nerd, and F.K….. hoo boy. Don’t worry, he’s friendly. And also a stuffed doll for some reason. toi also get really, really uncomfortable conversations between J.J. and her mother, which, um… Let’s just say that this can get to some uncomfortably real territory. I think a lot of people have been in the same situation that J.J. was in, where the person toi are is considered wrong and abnormal, and that they need help, when there is nothing wrong with that. I think what I l’amour about The Missing the most is that it does not hesitate to tell toi the dark parts of sexuality. Yes, it’s good to be who toi are without feeling down, but while I would l’amour to tell toi that everyone will accept you, that would be a lie. Guess what, being gay is not easy. It’s perfectly fine, but it’s not easy. Why would anyone want to be something that people hate, that people think is just wrong? I and many others know that being gay is alright, but not everyone will have that same thoughts and feelings. Even those close to toi may consider toi wrong in the head for feeling this way, and it’s a stigma that is still present even to this day. I won’t go into major details, since that would spoil this game for toi and I would rather toi play this game and experience the game for yourself, but… it’s not easy, it never is, and anyone that tells toi that being who toi are is easy has never known what it’s like. It’s hard to tell those that don’t like it how toi truly are. Do toi tell them and accept the possible judgement ou do toi bottle it up and keep it buried inside? The Missing isn’t afraid to acknowledge these darker aspects of sexuality and the struggles that come from it. Family issues, psychological trauma, and even suicide. Like I said, The Missing is a game that is not meant to make toi comfortable, and horror should not do that. And it’s why I think the Missing is a great horror game.
But like I said, this game has a strange sense of humor to it as well. The characters always text toi about their own issues in life like being called a trouble maker for their fashion and sticking up for those that can’t fight back, people dealing with their dreams just being out of reach, and then some. The text messages can bring a bit of nausea with how they're written, dare I say, cringe, but they’re nice. There’s also the game's strange collection items, being donuts. Collecting enough of them unlocks costumes and concept art and plus collectables, which toi can activate immediately from the pause menu. I l’amour this little feature and wish plus games did it. I know concept art is a worthless feature in today’s gaming market, but the fact that it can be accessed through the pause menu rather than quitting back to the menu is a nice feature that I wish plus games would try. But of course, this is a SWERY game, so not only is it weird, it’s also atmospheric as fuck. Full vues of city landscapes across an evening sky, a le dîner, salle à manger with a single jazz song and a faint neon sign from the outside, a dark forest with the faintest of music, it’s all such stylish. I think this is when SWERY’s l’amour for American culture really peeked, montrer off the different settings for a coast town setting like Maryland. It gives off this comforting feeling between puzzle locations before your thrusted back into cutting off your arms and setting yourself on feu to continue forward, a calm before the madness, if toi will.
I could go on and on about the game's story, about it’s clever visuals and puzzles, about it’s amazingly paced story that genuinely had me gripped from start to finish, but I would rather toi all play it for yourself. It’s one of the reasons I choose not to say more. I only wanted to interest toi all enough to play it for yourself. That plus there isn’t much to say. The game is relatively short, much shorter than Deadly Premonition, only about five hours, but it is an eventful five hours. toi can buy the game on Playstation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch apparently, and Steam for $30. I know some may say that price is too much for what you're getting, but I’d argue that it’s well worth it for the experience that it comes with. And honestly, with games rumored to be priced $70 now, toi could be doing so much worse than this. I mean, toi could be buying Last of Us 2. Yeah, I think I’ll spend $30 for a better representation of gay culture, thank you