A House of Endless Windows

the tension sinks its teeth into you from the very first scene. i was instantly struck by pierce’s relationship with his mother: the invisible hands of control, the words unspoken, the ebb and flow of trust, the loneliness. the house of endless windows acting as the surveillance of the mother’s watchful eye. this dynamic was immediately present from the first conversation as pierce strategizes the quickest path to end it. every subsequent interaction with them i felt that same, familiar discomfort i’ve experienced myself years past. this game understood how to write this relationship very, very well.

this tension compounds with each new mystery: who is the new housekeeper? where is father? what happened to mother by the river? we’re forced to stew in this unease as the perspective centers solely on pierce. avery and his mother serve as an outside perspective but only to a limited degree; they can’t provide the reader with any confirmation or closure since they are only seen through pierce’s eyes; they react to information solely provided by pierce’s perspective. this narrator has to be unreliable, but where exactly do we place that mistrust? you have no choice but to sit with those feelings for the duration of the piece. my favorite horror projects are ones that build this pressure (kiyoshi kurosawa, mentioned in another review, is one of my favorite directors for this reason) and a house of endless windows uses this to its full potential.

the mystery extends past the text to the presentation: gorgeous abstract landscapes of what might be fire and smoke intersected by slashing tendrils that give you just a taste of setting, but never the complete picture. ethereal music swells and lulls you into security just to pull the rug as the next track strikes you with anxious drones. the space opens so wide and never seems to converge—again, never settling on the concrete. (Spoiler - click to show)i do wish this abstraction continued into its conclusion: while the closure with the sister was nice i think it would have been thematic to leave the options open, to leave the proof unfinished.

this was engrossing. i couldn’t put it down. i typically get distracted when reading for extended periods of time but i was so entranced that my body forgot i might have an undiagnosed attention deficiency.

on a final note, i am so impressed to see the writing, art, and music all came from a single artist. literally how dare you. very inspiring work—i wanted to open clip studio to paint some abstract landscapes and toy around with music production immediately upon finishing. i’m very excited to see more work from this artist.

(i wrote a bit about some movies this reminded me of before figuring it was kinda gauche to compare an artist’s work to other projects, but if anyone else loved this game like me and wants to see more works with these themes, i really loved dekalog: one and the reflecting skin. guy who only watches movies voice: getting a lot of movie vibes from this)