Before Your Eyes

Before Your Eyes is a first-person narrative adventure with a unique mechanic that is designed to immerse you in the story. By using your webcam, you will be able to use your blinks to control the flow of the story, make choices and interact with objects. The game is fully voice acted and is also playable without a webcam. No data or footage is captured whilst the webcam is in use. Before Your Eyes is a very emotional story which left me with a huge lump in my throat afterwards. It is extremely polished and wonderfully presented. Voice acting is superb and full of feeling and emotion, and the graphics look gorgeous being imaginatively conveyed on screen. I was a bit dubious about the blinking mechanic but I had no issues with calibration or how effective the blinks were. My blinks always registered and it worked perfectly. The only issue I had with the mechanic was it can become very tiresome on your eyes. If you enjoy a good story this game certainly has it, but often the story was missed because I blinked and the story moved on to the next section. Dialogues can go on quite long. Certainly longer than most people can stare without blinking so it is inevitable that you are going to miss some of that dialogue. At the time, I found this incredibly annoying as I wanted to see and hear everything that was on offer. I played through the game again without the webcam and I wish I had chosen this option to begin with. Even though some of the dialogue I had missed was incidental and trivial, some of it was not, and it helped fill in gaps in the story I had missed the first time. It is certainly worth playing the game twice as there are choices to be made during the game which will affect how the story unfolds. It was enjoyable to choose different options and watch how they panned out. The game takes two hours to complete. Ultimately, the blinking mechanic is original and innovative but I’m not convinced it really helps immerse you in the story more than just using the mouse. Parts where you have to close your eyes are effective but otherwise I could not tell the difference. This is a game that stands high on the shoulders of the genre, and whether you find the blinking mechanic effective or not, it still delivers a first-class experience in all departments. Before Your Eyes attempts something new with its blinking mechanic, and at first it feels novel and imaginative. Unfortunately, this soon turns sour as your eyes begin to dry up and frustration...

An emotional story with a very interesting progression mechanic; it's very short and can be played in one sitting. Even though the face recognition is a bit fussy, I strongly recommend trying out the blink controls, it's a unique experience. Great value if you get the game on sale.

Interesting gameplay gimmick...

Amazing game to play in few hours. Starting from its original blinking mechanics, to the narrative approach, and the graphic style, Before your eyes is a jewel that I recommend to everybody looking for something fresh. The player lives the life of a dead man though short memories that quickly fade away every time he blinks (and the software that recognize the blinking works well once it's calibrated). The graphic is minimal but very pleasant to the eye. The plot contains few twists that really makes the trip very enjoyable. I don't want to say more because I played not knowing anything about the game and I really enjoyed it like this.

Before Your Eyes is an amazing indie game with a premise I have not seen before, and a unique mechanic. You play as Benny. He is dead, and his life is "flashing before his eyes". Due to my room setup I couldn't play with the camera tracking, which would make the game more immersive, but it was still worth playing. It has a great story, and brought me to tears. This is a story heavy game, if you are looking for action, or fancy graphics then this isn't for you. However, if you want a great story with immersive gameplay, then Before Your Eyes is worth at least one play through.

A short and immersive narrative game with a unique facial-recognition blinking mechanic via webcam. Not difficult to 100%, but required a few chapters of replay with webcam disabled.