Alzheimer's: Memories

Tips for linux users:
You need -screen-fullscreen 1 to run this game in full screen mode.
If you're on wayland and not xorg, -force-wayland to activate wayland support.

Review:
The music and the cinematics came together really well. The interactive storytelling reminds me of Life is Short by Interactive Haiku. The only few drawbacks of the game: The interactivity reminds me of old visual novels from the 90s, and you have to click through everything to move forward. There is a significant memory leak issue, potentially due to artworks not being unloaded from the memory after the scene is over. Overall, very decent.

I think the game does a good job of showing what it might feel like to live with Alzheimer’s. But when it comes to the gameplay, it felt a bit rough. The point-and-click system isn’t very intuitive. No indicator when you interact with something, so I got confused a few times. The musical puzzle, especially. Even with the hint, it didn’t really help much. It took me a while to realize that the notes played twice, they just stay highlighted, they don’t get clicked twice or flash on and off.

The idea behind the game is meaningful, but the execution needs more polish and better user-friendly.

**NOTE:** This review is part of my steam curator review and is the extended version. Check my steam curator page at https://store.steampowered.com/curator/39607348-Random-Game-Reviews-by-Labprofess/ . Follow appreciated!
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Alzheimer’s: Memories is a game about an old man diagnosed with Alzheimers, who is now trying to remember various aspects of his life such as his friends and family. Follow the “old man” from his perspective of how he views his reality and dreams. See how reality morphs in your mind and experience, the day to day life of a Alzheimer’s patient. I personally don’t know anyone with Alzheimer’s , but I met someone with Dementia of which I understand certain experiences of the game which are very personal to me. It's interesting to know how reality changes completely for some people, something we as “outsiders” can struggle to understand. This game is a must play if someone you know is struggling with Alzheimer’s or another form of memory loss, but also just to learn about what Alzheimer’s is and how it affects the person who suffers from it.

The gameplay is perfect. The art style is unique and I love it. This game uses minimal lines that wobble to give the impression of a distorted reality with lack of remembering details. The graphics are perfectly clear and can run on even the worst PCs (Game specifications apply). The game also uses minimal bright colors, possibly giving the impression of a distorted reality with some remembrance? Not sure on the interpretation. Something notable is that the constant white background can become hallucinating after a while and before you realize, you’re not blinking at all with foggy gameplay. So be sure to blink throughout certain levels and not sit too close to the screen.

Lastly, to summarize this review, I want to mention some drawbacks I noticed. First, this game doesn't have a proper home screen. It has one when you start the game, however during the game, if you leave (whenever you leave, it saves!) it quits to the desktop which is a bummer. Second, when you complete the game, (no spoilers here) after it displays the credits, the game simply goes to the desktop. Would be nice to have a home screen it returns too.
Now moving too if you should play this game: depends. There's lots of symbolism. The amount of symbolism and interpreting what certain actions in this game mean give me English High school flashbacks. Hence this game might be enjoyable to English students or those into those types of ‘deeper’ games? However, if you aren't into that, this game might be hard to enjoy due to missing out on a lot. What makes this game also interesting is to those that know someone or want to understand Alzheimer’s more.