At the risk of being completely irrelevant: Do you know the music that plays at the spa? Synthetic, intermittent soundscape type stuff that isn’t quite music, but isn’t quite music. Negative music? How can you find a playlist when you’ve strayed from your favorite lo-fi playlist? Is it the chord after the soothing chord interspersed with bird sounds, rain sounds, or crackling fire? Well, Europe It is, but in video game form – at least as far as its gameplay is concerned.

EuropeDeveloped by Helder Pinto and Novadust Entertainment, the game involves slowly gliding through mostly shadowy environments, accompanied by soothing piano and electronic music. You play as Zee, a humanoid boy who uses his “Zephyr” backpack to fly through tranquil landscapes filled with overgrown ruins and cute robots. During opening hours, Europe I feel like this topic needs to be opened. Beautiful Vista SimulatorIt pans the camera to show off the game’s painterly aesthetic and surprising scope as it takes you from overlook to stunning landscape. If you liked the opening The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Europe it does this kind of epic removal every 30 minutes. (Just a slight exaggeration.)

It is received only by vibrations, Europe It is a relaxing experience bordering on meditation. There is no challenge here. Many enemies can be disabled with a hug. Puzzles are perfunctory and shipped quickly. You cannot die. If you’re looking for a challenge, look elsewhere. Europe The challenge varies from challenge to enjoyment as the player explores the nooks and crannies of a magnificent, albeit largely empty, world. Besides Zee, this world is inhabited only by various fauna (deers, rabbits, foxes) and robots the size of a ship. And it is the latter population that introduces the game’s most obvious conflict: the stark contrast between its aesthetics and its narrative.

There’s no shortage of post-apocalyptic games. Europefor all its creepy trappings, it’s just another entry in the genre. Humans colonized Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, and transformed it into something habitable with AI-generated terraformers. But all is not well in the mission to build a second home for people. The game is narrated by an old man writing to his son, and you spend your time collecting pages from his diary, piecing together the story of what happened before you set off on your European adventure – it turns out it’s a pretty realistic story. darkness. As the game progresses, it becomes clear that humanity’s flaws have come with them to Europa; The terraformers had long ago decided to rebel against their creators, finding humanity contrary to their directives to create an ecologically sound environment. This conflict turns into a direct war as humanity abandons the land and takes shelter in the sky.

Without spoiling anything, let me say this: EuropeThe play makes a definitive statement about the conflict between human life and the environment. However, the questions posed Europe‘s story – essentially, if they’ve failed and failed again to do anything other than destroy every place they call home, should humanity be given a second chance to sustain a planet? – the exact opposite of the gaming experience, which is extremely cold and, as I wrote, almost completely devoid of combat.

In the short three to four hours it takes to complete the game, you’ll encounter landscapes undisturbed by industry or greed; You’ll read, page after page, how humans have brought our warlike tendencies back to normal, even in our desperate escape from a devastated Earth. We were a utopia. In his narrative, Europe It explicitly asks the player to consider whether we, as humanity, deserve a Europe. My answer was clearly no, as I watched the clouds roll over lush hills filled with creatures both biologically and technologically undisturbed. We tried our luck. Let them try it. If we wasted our first and second, let someone else get a chance. Let the world take back the world and see if a newer, gentler order can emerge.

I don’t think the developers would agree with me on this point, but I find it fascinating that the game allows this reading. Europe It has some downsides as a game: The camera can often fight you mid-flight, some sound effects still feel like placeholders, and periodically disabling Zee’s ability to float freely in the air (as a way to add challenge) doesn’t work all that well because being able to fly and then Being told to walk is no fun. And again, if you’re looking for a challenge, look for greener pastures (good luck finding greener pastures, though) Europe‘s).

Again Europe It’s not a game I can recommend without some reservations, but what I admire most about it is its reluctance to frame gameplay loopholes and narrative incongruities. After seeing where the story goes, I can safely say that this contrast was not unintentional on the part of the developers. And although I personally bristle at the more hopeful trends, I still appreciate the fact that: Europe He wants you to decide for yourself what you think about all this. It’s a bold game that leaves the player with such thematic decisions rather than obsessing over a desired interpretation. Europe It may be the spa soundtrack of post-apocalyptic games, but this relief raises a deeper question: Do we deserve a greener world? If not, how can we change ourselves to fit into that green utopia we’ve been dreaming of for so long?

Europe It was released on Nintendo Switch and Windows PC on October 11. The author played it on PC using a download code provided by Future Friends Games. Vox Media has affiliated partnerships. These do not affect editorial content; however, Vox Media may earn commission from products purchased through affiliate links. You can find additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.