Year Walk came out last February for iOS and was one of my favorite games of the year. It's unlike anything out there, a game that incorporates little-known Swedish mythological figures, teaching you about them while making you experience them, and, most importantly, fear them. This is a terrifying game, best experienced with headphones on in the middle of the night, and it's wonderful that PC and Mac users can now download it on Steam.
A "Year Walk" is basically a vision quest that the Swedish used to take at the start of a year. They'd spend New Year's Eve in solitude in a room without warmth, light or food. After your day-long fast you would head out into the freezing winter at the stroke of midnight, heading towards the local church and encountering and supernatural apparitions you met on the way. It wasn't something everyone survived.
The game is your own personal year walk. It features some beautiful visuals and a style reminiscent of a pop-up book, cartoony but somehow scarier for it. This new edition includes a map, new locations within the game, updated art, a hint system, and Steam Achievements- in other words, enough new features that you might want to pick it up even if you own it already.
The original iOS version came with another essential companion app, basically an encyclopedia that details the various Swedish myths and apparitions you're going to run across over the course of the game. It was essential reading to figure out what exactly you're dealing with and how to combat them, and despite the fact that it was a separate app it fit perfectly together with the game and furthered the total experience. There's no need for it anymore, as the companion app has been incorporated into the game, but I'd almost suggest downloading it to your iPhone anyway because it's such a unique thing.
Check out Year Walk on Steam for $5.99/£3.99, a small price to pay for such a fantastic game. The trailer below will give you an idea of what you have to expect. Good luck.
