B.Abbdi’s secret weapon is a trumpet. Unearthed from a tower above a stagnant shipyard, it’s an unexpected comedic flourish in what feels like a lo-fi brutalist horror game. Making music is simple: hold down the left mouse button until you run out of breath, change the pitch with the cursor. If you want, you can try tapping on the in-game radio. The trumpet won’t help you navigate Babbdi’s dizzying architecture, better look for the climbing axe, but it’s hard to put down. It transforms this world-weary first-person platformer into a game about testing the acoustics of abandoned spaces: melancholic yet joyful.
Released for free at Christmas by little-known French developer Lemaitre Bros, Babbdi is a lean masterpiece that sets you adrift in a small abandoned town. All it requires you to do is leave, which is easy enough. Naturally, this adds to the intrigue. So many video game environments feel throwaway, just so much scenery to ignore or exploit while chasing down an enemy or landmark, but they’re rarely actively presented as such. What could this one be hiding?
A lot, it turns out. You can read Babbdi as a study in post-industrial urban depression; Crumbling Soviet-era blocks and flimsy electric signs struggle to illuminate a leaden sky. In practice, the city is not a cul-de-sac, but rather an indulgent vertical playground, replete with parkour routes, mystery collectibles, tools to play with, and smaller, often unspoken goals to complete in one’s spare time: have fun. the dog, persuade the doorman, talk. the woman. It even feels inhabited. The residents sound like broken modems and haunted potatoes, but they’re recognizable as people: that old lady struggling at home with her groceries could be anyone’s next-door neighbor.
Babbdi has a retro vibe that goes beyond its low-res textures. Its brevity and openness make me think of the levels of magazine demo records I treasured and played as a teenager. But it also feels like a specific relief from the anxieties of 2023, combining an uncanny tranquility with a sense of possibility. And yes, it allows you to play La Cucaracha.
