I did not like “Someday You’ll Return” when I first started it up. The mouse movement felt weird, the bugs were frustrating and voice acting was extremely bad. However, after adjusting the mouse sensitivity and forgiving the little bugs I started to like it. This game is an uncut gem, that could have been turned into a diamond, had it spent more time in the furnace. This is our review of Someday You’ll Return in which we explore the Czech Republic and try to make some potions while trying not to get spooked.
The game is a story-driven psychological horror game about Daniel who’s searching for his daughter named Stela. She ran away from home. The game is set in a beautiful forest in the Czech Republic. The forest looks downright gorgeous in places and they have done a wonderful job with the art direction. The little hills, the trees, and all the extra things that they put looked beautiful.
Let’s talk a bit about our protagonist. He is an extremely unlikable and negative person. A bad ex-husband and a horrible parent too. I am sure that is what the writers intended, it’s not like he’s going to change his personality mid-way of the game to rekindle the relationship between him and his daughter. Every time he speaks, I just want to hit something. Maybe it’s because of the bad writing or maybe they wrote him this way.
When you start the game, it will feel like a walking simulator. But don’t be fooled, there’s lots to do in the game. Lots of puzzles to be solved, potions to be made and items to be fixed. You will get a toolbox in the game which are used in the crafting system. The crafting system here is not like a survival game’s crafting system, it is more akin to an adventure game’s system where you will combine different items to make a new item.
I’ll give you one example. There’s a cave we have to go through, but the cave is littered with dangerous spiders. Daniel refuses to enter the cave as it’s dark and dangerous. We find a box earlier in the game which had a matchbox, a piece of cloth, and a bottle of gasoline. We use a knife on the cloth to cut it into smaller pieces, wrap those pieces around a stick, pour gasoline on it, and then light a fire.
There are various other gameplay mechanics too like a potion-making system, rock climbing, a usable smartphone, etc. But the game gives you little time to experience them and throws another gimmick at you. I really liked the potion crafting in the game. To make potions you need flowers. Flowers can be found all over the forest and at first, you might get overwhelmed trying to pick up the flowers but there’s a special potion that will make this job easier. You keep the flowers in your potion crating kit box. You can cut the flowers, crush them, boil them and mix them together to make potions.
It is a semi open-world game where you will spend a lot of time trekking through the forest, going back and forth and sometimes aimlessly trying to find your next goal. There’s no handholding in the game so you’ll have to figure out a lot of stuff by yourself.
Now looking back at the game, there is one thing that I find really weird. It is how Daniel readily accepts all the supernatural stuff happening in the game. His nonchalant behavior feels out of place. I think the writers could have done a better job here. The game is also awfully long, took me around 20+ hours to complete it. The game’s pacing was out of whack too, so I had to force myself to complete the game.
Final Verdict:
The game looks gorgeous and trekking through the forest feels great. However, the game could have been a lot better if the pacing were better, a bit more direction was given, and we had a protagonist who was not an utter douche bag. I would still recommend the game to lovers of adventure games and to try out the game.
Final Score: 7.0/10
