PlayStation 3 Review: Linger in Shadows

I don’t take my PlayStation 3 online very often, but when I do, I tend to check the PlayStation Store Web site first to see what, if anything, is new or worth downloading. That’s where I saw the image for Linger in Shadows in the Game of the Week box, followed by a description that kicks off by insisting that it’s not actually a game. Intriguing.

There are games that aspire to art in their cinematic themes or atmosphere, and games that simply emphasize aesthetic design, but Linger in Shadows may be the first title I’ve seen billed as a purely artistic experience. I’m a little late to the party, since it’s been available for nearly two months, but I had to try it, and I’m glad I did.

The download blurb identifies Linger first as "interactive digital art," and then as a "demoscene." The developers, a group from Poland called Plastic, provide in-game text with a helpful definition and history of the demoscene for the benefit of people like myself who’ve never heard the term; I’ll summarize it here as "tech demo as art." Originally meant to show off hardware’s processing and graphical power, these pieces grew into showcases for programmers’ skills and style, and function as artistic expression in their own right.

So, how does an underground art culture manifest itself on the PlayStation 3? Linger in Shadows is, at its core, a video, about seven minutes long and divided into 6 scenes. It’s rendered beautifully in a sort of digital impressionist style, and has a gorgeous instrumental soundtrack to match the visuals (and the main theme is available as a separate, free download).

The interactive element is twofold. Firstly, you can manipulate playback in the usual media player ways, including variable speed rewind and fast-forward — handy if you want to single out a specific frame. Added to these controls are the abilities to change the viewing angle via motion control and to take screenshots, which find their way into your PS3’s photo folder and can be, for example, set as your system's wallpaper.

The second element is more significant. You can manipulate not just the playback, but also certain items within the scene. This on its own wouldn’t be spectacular, but Plastic shows a little more gaming savvy than the blurbs seem to admit, because each scene must be manipulated in some way to unlock the next. As such things go, these tasks aren’t all that difficult, but allowing the player to discover the puzzle, its rules, and its solution without so much as a word of guidance is a technique familiar from the best adventure games, and I happen to think it's one of the most engaging, even as abbreviated as it is in Linger.

Article Author: Gabe Carr

Gabe Carr is a compulsive and incurable gamer who occasionally does other things.

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