Fragments of Him

My next one on the ‘Easy’ list was Fragments of Him and this is another testament to not buying games because they are easy.

Fragments of Him is a narrative driven game that’s more of a visual novel than anything else. It’s a game told from multiple character perspectives that revolve around this guy, Will. Will has made a big life changing decision in that he has left his girlfriend Sarah to pursue a relationship with Harry. Over the course of these narrative exchanges and perspectives – and there are four of them – it’s discovered that… none of these people are very nice. They all seem to behave in very strange ways or hold deep prejudices which they aren’t afraid to vocalise. I suppose, from a narrative point of view, it’s good as it doesn’t shy away from prejudices that do exist, but that doesn’t excuse the other characters.

The worst one of these is Will himself. After upsetting Sarah, he spends most of the game wondering whether being with Harry is the right thing to do. However, as this is portrayed in the game, his biggest issues seem to be around whether he showers or has breakfast first. When he’s sweating these basic choices, it makes him come across as one of the one self-centred characters in entertainment history.

That’s a nice thought to lead on to the gameplay. Essentially, it’s point-and-click in style. You walk around clicking on environmental objects and they appear accompanied with some character narrative – in Will’s case, it’s mostly inane drivel about soap or cereal.

What I’m trying to say is that there isn’t a lot of gameplay and the gameplay that is there leaves a lot to be desired. Moving the characters around the environments is a slow and laborious process, especially when you are required to navigate around people and obstacles. Apparently, everything in this world needs a massive berth for you to be able to get past it.

Sounds and looks wise, it’s not winning any prizes. It’s very depressing in places and it’s gone for a non-detailed look to the characters. This is probably to avoid detracting from the narrative which is the main point of the game.

Achievements – 1,000 Points – 10 Achievements

It’s another minimal list here and seven of them are given for getting to end of the game – something that takes less than 3 hours to do.

The other three are situational ones which require Will to do some things. One of them is for interacting with a board in the kitchen during one of his scenes and the other two are either/or achievements which revolve around my earlier comment. If you go to shower before breakfast that’s one achievement. And you get the other one for having breakfast first. It obviously requires a scene replay but it’s a short scene and not much of an inconvenience.

Downloadable Content – N/A

Fragments of Him is a short and easy completion but it’s not something I would categorise as fun. I can see how the character-driven story would appeal to people, but for me, the characters were unrelatable and didn’t feel very real.