A Highland Song captures the joys and dangers of being lost in nature
A Highland Song is the new game from Inkle, the acclaimed storyteller responsible for Heaven’s Vault, 80 Days, Overboard!, Pendragon and the Sorcery! adaptations. And for this adventure, the genre has changed again. It’s still a narrative game at heart but it’s wrapped in a platforming shell. You play a young lady called Moira who yearns to see the sea and so runs away from home and into – and over – the Scottish Highlands in pursuit of it. You control her running and jumping and climbing, and at points, do so in time to folk music that sporadically bursts from the game.
It’s a game inspired by, I believe, the real-life walking adventures of Inkle co-founder Joseph Humfrey, who was once lost out in the Highlands. But it’s also inspired by the many literary people who’ve tried to capture the magic of the Highlands, and of walking, over the course of many, many years. In this piece, Christian Donlan and I play the game and talk about our experiences of it.
A Highland Song is coming to PC and Nintendo Switch “soon” – presumably this year although that has not been confirmed.
