Exhibition

The setting is the final exhibition of the artist Anatoly Domokov, following his suicide. You select one of four characters attending the exhibit and can switch between them at any time. While the game consists mainly of examining the environment and artwork, each character has an individual perspective and a role to play. Some knew the artist intimately, some academically, some not at all. The player has the agency to choose how they learn about the artist’s story.

Exhibition is the type of game that might be called plot-less or not interactive. There is a story, we’re just starting at the end and working our way back through recollections. Additionally, each character has their own personal story: why they’re here, what they hope to gain from the event, and what their conclusions are afterwards. I found it compelling to switch between views, putting the information together to come to my own conclusions.

If there’s a drawback it’s that (Spoiler - click to show)some characters actually are more relevant than others. I happened to choose the Boy to play first, and his perspective seemed to be the full story; exploring the other characters after that felt kind of pointless. So, it’s possible to accidentally stumble onto knowing too much before exploring all the characters.

A final note: the music files (played by the author) are the variations of Promenade from Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition suite. I wish this had been explained a little more in the credits, because it’s an interesting tie-in to the game’s inspiration.