Are you more than your past? This seems to be the central question of Penrose, a short but impactful psychological horror game for Playdate by Liza Olson. Ultimately, the answer will be determined by the decisions you make as you try to find your way out of the strange titular city.
Much of the experience in Penrose It's exploration, and the game unfolds from start to finish as a haunting and emotionally challenging walk down memory lane. There are things your character might find, like an old playground, that will spark a fond touch, while others (a mirror, a closed bedroom door) seem related to more painful events. As you leave the house where you started and make your way through the seemingly abandoned town, things get stranger and stranger.
You'll encounter some creepy entities, not to mention a deeply disturbing shopping mall that, for some reason, oozes (I really appreciated the design of this in a love-hate sort of way). The names of the stores in that mall are also pretty funny, each of which is a play on some real-life chain, like Not Tropic. There are some puzzles in Penrose, but the catacombs stand out as the only area of real difficulty. It tripped me up for a good minute, which made me feel even smarter once I figured out how to solve it.
Penrose It beautifully captures the complicated nature of nostalgia, and there are multiple possible endings to the game that fit that complexity perfectly. Penrose Is available in chop for Playdate and Playdate Simulator on PC, Mac and Linux.