‘Hindsight’ Mobile Review – Beautiful Grief – TouchArcade

When Hindsight ($4.99), the new game of Plum developer Joel McDonald, was announced for multiple platforms including iOS, I was pretty excited to experience it. Being published by Annapurna Interactive is usually a good sign, but what really got me excited Hindsight this is how he would tell his story. I’ve played many interactive story adventures that have a memorable story, but don’t do much with the interaction. These experiments are worth your time, but I always hope to see someone do more of them. It’s here that Hindsight surprised me. I’ve now experienced it on both Nintendo Switch and iOS for this review, but I’ll focus on the iOS version played on my iPhone 11 and iPad Pro (2020).

Hindsight is a short narrative experience that involves interacting with various objects and places to experience memories. It focuses on the life of a specific woman from her birth to the present day. It involves a lot of grief and emotion. It’s always hard to talk about a story in a game like this without going into spoilers, but I will say this is one of the best stories in a game this year. It excels in the way it guides you through different stages while giving you a glimmer of hope.

The actual gameplay involves light puzzles that involve moving the camera or objects in a specific way to navigate to the next location or story beat. I like how it lets you interact from time to time while listening to the narration and living the story. I also really liked almost all the locations and interactions in Hindsight. I wanted to be as spoiler-free as possible in this review, but the ethereal feel of certain moves and sequences here is amazing. I don’t know how it would stay fresh, but I would love to see more stories told like this by the same team.

While history and art in Hindsight are tall, he is uplifted by music and storytelling. having played Hindsight a few days before its release, I was waiting for its release on Steam so that I could buy the game and soundtrack bundle. Kyle Preston’s music is excellent.

As for the control options, Hindsight is best played with a touchscreen even if you’re playing on Nintendo Switch. It feels perfect with the touch controls. If you want to play with a controller, the developers have done a good job translating this game into a controller. The iOS version also has full controller support with support for rumble and other controller options. The screenshot below is from when you paired a controller. I used my PS5 DualSense controller.

My only complaint with Hindsight on iOS it’s with how it doesn’t have proper save states. I lost progress when switching to another app and coming back later. Not a dealbreaker given the short duration of around 2 hours, but I would recommend playing Hindsight in one sitting if you can to get the most out of it. The short runtime, however, might put some people off.

having played Hindsight on iOS and Switch, the iOS version is definitely the way to go. It has the same features, including controller support, but runs at a higher resolution and costs a third of the price. I didn’t know how much Hindsight Was going to cost when I played it on iOS, but I knew the price for the Switch version. The game itself is definitely worth the asking price, but if you have the option, the mobile version is better. If you want to get it on Switch, this build also has full touch support, which is always good to see in Switch builds.

Despite the minor issues I have with the iOS version of the game, Hindsight is an essential if you enjoy emotional storytelling. I love how you constantly interact, even with simple swipes, while experiencing great storytelling, music, and a memorable story. If you like short stories, Hindsight absolutely worth your time and one of my favorite stories in gaming this year. It’s also my favorite Joel McDonald game now, above Plum.