We. The Refugees: Ticket to Europe – Spotlight
It’s challenging to make games with a meaningful real-world message, such as those that focus on environmental, social, or political issues. Such works must not only be entertaining enough to be deemed a valuable experience in the world of interactive media, but they must also effectively convey the topics they promise. Games like Gibbon: Beyond the Trees employ a simplified arcade approach. Some choose a text-based adventure, such as the recently released We. The Refugees: Ticket to Europe. Just like its awkwardly formed name, this text adventure game seeks to shed light on the modern humanitarian issue via the perspective of a nave writer, but it mainly fails to do so due to its variable dialogue quality, poor presentation, and stitched-together tale.
In Ticket to Europe, players assume the character of a novelist in search of inspiration. It occurs to me that maybe it should be about the refugee problem that’s afflicting Europe right now. He naively and foolishly thinks that experiencing the refugee trip firsthand and collecting the stories of individuals he meets along the road will set his book apart from others on the subject. In order to find a smuggler who can help him return to mainland Europe, the author travels to Egypt, specifically to the city of Alexandria, to meet with a contact at a refugee crisis centre. These competing ideas permeate the entire experience, which is bold but ultimately self-serving.
The player reads long passages of text and clicks on various options and on the next scene to progress through the game. Separated from the scrolling text on the right side of the screen is a collection of largely still visuals. The visuals are adequate overall, covering everything from set design to character art to the occasional tiny animation. Since the wording doesn’t always inspire imagination, this adds a bit more life and creativity to the game.
The success of a text adventure hinges on the calibre of its writing, and Ticket to Europe’s prose is sporadic at best. The protagonist’s internal monologues veer wildly between self-reflective, illuminating, narcissistic, and conceited. From debating whether or not to take a selfie and share it on Instagram to expressing the plight of refugees and the larger problems facing civilization. Wordplay can pop up anywhere, and after some time you’ll realise that the subtlety of these texts was probably lost in translation. Since the developers and protagonist are both Polish, the game’s translation to English probably contributed to some of its mediocre aspects. The story’s tone and style are reminiscent to the 2022 film Vengeance, but it lacks that film’s witty banter, complex characters, and moving emotional connections.
As was previously said, there are very few characteristics typical of gameplay. Most of the time, you only read the text and decide between a few options. Some decisions have immediate consequences, while others build to attributes like lying, cynicism, or empathy that may have consequences later on, though the game doesn’t specify when. The emotional effect of the horrors the protagonist may experience along the road is lessened since the narrative never manages to create a balance between its airhead protagonist and these tragedies.
There’s some replay value because to the multiple paths the story might take depending on your decisions, and that’s a plus. At around 90 minutes, the game is just the right length to keep players engaged until the conclusion and give them reason to consider playing through again. On the flip side, story-altering decisions frequently result in choppy timelines and unsatisfying, illogical conclusions. You might think of the Memories menu as a scrapbook of important moments in your story. The game’s low system requirements are a direct result of the gameplay’s light weight and the presentation’s simplicity.
We. The Refugees: Ticket to Europe is a video game with an essential message to convey about the plight of refugees in Europe, the perils they face on their journey, and the experience of one guy who sets out to live through it. A potentially vulgar and offensive play on words, “the message gets lost at sea” perfectly captures the spirit of the game. The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante or Disco Elysium this is not, despite the good intentions.Perhaps the translation from Polish only needed to be better translated to English, but the writing quality is all over the place and never settles on a consistent theme. Traditional aspects such as action options and a light inventory system scarcely add to the experience, and the main character never completes any type of redemption arc for their essentially vacuous persona. The interviews with the refugees may be based on genuine stories, but they lack any effect. The visuals are pleasant, and the game is short enough to warrant at least a couple of plays, but it’s probably not compelling enough to keep most players coming back for more.
