Welcome to Elk (2020)

Welcome to Elk is a game that’s hard to quantify. Hell, it’s hard to even accurately describe. Somehow, it manages to be moving, mystifying, upsetting, intriguing, stressful, confusing, enlightening, and probably a dozen other contradictory things. Welcome to Elk doesn’t provide satisfying answers or endings. There are few, if any, likable characters. You’ll experience more trauma than you probably want to in just a few, short hours. And at the end of it all, you’re left clutching at the sharp, jagged shards of other people’s emotions, wondering… what do I do now?

One of the subgenres of games that has been extremely well-represented on the Switch has been story-driven games, and these have come in all sorts of forms and share their narratives in a variety of ways...

Frigg's experience feels genuine and grounded even during moments of whimsy. At the end of the day, the game's message is that sometimes a good story is just that: a good story. It really doesn't need to be anything more.

As I sat there looking at the colorful rendering of Elk and my 100% completion save file, I wondered if my assumption was inherently American. I had these thoughts of, Give me my prize. Give me the thing again without having to work for it. Give me the chance to look at this again. I knew, looking at that menu screen, that that was not the point of Welcome to Elk. The point of Welcome to Elk is to experience a small world of stories and lives. And there’s no way to dip your toes in. Like the lovable alcoholic schoolteacher Sue, sometimes you have to just dive into those frigid waters and swim to shore.

I did enjoy playing Welcome to Elk and I’m glad I made it through the whole game. By the end I really felt for the main characters and their stories depicted, even more so for the real life people who tell the stories. The ending was a nice warm way to round out the whole experience.