The Gap

by Jordan Helsley
reviewed on PC
Every Road A Story
Multiverse stories are all the rage right now. Everywhere you look it seems someone has their own take on how to get there or how it all works. Usually it's a requirement for the base story's plot to save the world from something catastrophic or apocalyptic, and our hero(es) exist as the only hope. The Gap is different: foregoing the grand scale for something more relatable, more palpable, and more touching.
The parallel reality aspect of The Gap is its most superfluous. It serves as a vehicle for Joshua's trips down memory lane as he attempts to solve the most important mystery of his life: how can he possibly save his family? It is a goal he becomes obsessed with, his scientific mind not allowing a question to go unanswered, even as his own mind begins to slip away.
Science and Heart
You're a neuroscientist, and a decorated one at that. The game makes a point of driving this point home as it builds up to reveal just how obsessed you've become with finding a cure to a rare disease which threatens to destroy your family. It is a story that hits home because it is grounded enough to be real. It's a science fiction story set so close to (this) reality that you cannot help but fall victim to its trappings.
The story is the point, here, so I won't tread much further towards its answers, but the ride is just as thrilling. Piecing your memory back together comes in the form of interacting with relics of your past. This allows you to jump into these realities and experience them again. Re-live conversations, re-explore areas, re-consider the importance of even the most innocuous moments. This memory hopping sends you down Inception-like rabbit holes traveling further and further into your past, spying on spectres of your loved ones like the ghost of a man who is already gone.
Living It Up
Every square inch of these set pieces seems to be created with care. Something like your apartment becoming progressively less lived-in as you go further into the past is so perfectly conveyed in the setting alone that you could get a complete story without the utterance of a word. From the spider-web of an investigation board regressing to your daughter progressively loving you more, living your life in reverse turns out to be an effective way to convey a heart-breaking story.
The Gap is just as effective at creating beautiful, story rich environments as it is at teasing out its mysteries. I wanted to stay in each moment just as much as I wanted to progress the story, and as I searched high and low for items to investigate I felt more in tune with the tortured protagonist herein.
Dedicated Detective Work
While the gameplay is as familiar as any other "walking sim," The Gap feels fresh in that it forces you to pay attention more than most. Puzzles here won't hold your hand, but will instead test your observation and memory skills as if you were Joshua himself. There's even a moment from your past, during a neuroscience exam, which forces you to play the part, find the answers, and get a passing grade. It was just one of many moments where piecing together the clues made me feel like I was making a difference in Joshua's reconstruction, even if failure wasn't actually an option.
There were a few moments of obtuse timing puzzles, but I never felt a lack of tools to solve any of them. I never felt stuck or stupid because I couldn't intuit what the game was guiding me to do relatively quickly. This goes beyond the pips of light that call out interactable objects to the actual design language of the game. Knowing where the pieces to the puzzle are is only half the battle, after all, and while a few moments had a trial-and-error feel, they didn't last long enough to feel frustrating. Eventually you'll realize that even without talking to you directly, it really does tell you everything you need to know.
The Final Pieces
The Gap is so much more than a gorgeous puzzle game, layered mystery thriller, or a walking simulator, it's a trip through a life upended. It resonated with me on several emotional levels because it's a well-built world, housing a finely-crafted narrative, conveyed by some stellar voice acting. This isn't some "gotcha" mystery; it's not going for some home run twist. The Gap has a story to tell, and it does so with urgency. I honestly wish it was about twice as long, so that it had more time to sink into its philosophy or show more of Joshua's life, or that it simply had more depth inside to give me a reason to play again, outside of a branched ending that is easy to experience both ways. But to think this is the developers' first official outing brings me great joy, as I'm left itching for more. What I thought was going to be an interesting story turned out to be one of my favourite games of the year, one that I'll be thinking about for a while: each time I remind myself not to take what I've got for granted.
As always, follow Hooked Gamers on Instagram for news updates, reviews, competitions and more.
9.5
fun score
Pros
A story well-told in a set of beautiful worlds with impactful interactions and living characters.
Cons
A few graphical glitches, a short runtime, and a lack of any real reason to play a second time through.