The recent COVID-19 pandemic and consequential lockdowns are now starting to raise stories through film, books, and games. In fact, I think it will be in the next few years that we really start to understand the impact on people’s mental health and how they coped with isolation.
Mediterranea Inferno is a game that partly deals with some of these issues, but it is so much more than that, playing out through a visual novel. It’s a game that is partly symbolic, surreal, realistic, and outrageous. It’s a game unlike anything you will have played, especially in terms of visual editing and narrative structure. It’s a game that will blow your socks off.
Lorenzo Redaelli is a game developer who has come to market with Mediterranea Inferno as their second game, after the highly praised first effort, Milky Way Prince – The Vampire Star. Like the first game, this is a visual novel with minimal gameplay, but this game seems to go further into how to tell a story, mixing styles and genres in order to create a truly original piece of work.
Mediterranea Inferno is set in southern Italy, in the summer holidays where three 20-something friends get together for the first time since the pandemic, spending some time frolicking in the sun. There is Claudio who is trying to get back to his family roots, all while having an identity crisis and feels like he is lost in how his life is progressing. Andrea, is the party animal of the group and since lockdown has been desperate for any kind of human connection. Lastly we have Mida who has become a celebrity during lockdown; a model jet-setting around the world, However, they are deeply depressed and seek love from someone who isn’t interested.
This might sound like a normal realistic drama, but don’t be fooled. Because a supernatural stranger, like a genie in the bottle, comes along and offers them all Mirages, where they can play and eat the fruit to experience them. Get enough and you can enter into heaven. When the boys enter this Mirage state everything becomes super unreal, strange, and trippy. A graveyard experience turns into a weeping woman sideshow, a beach mirage turns into a strange peep show and boat party slap fest. One sequence that happens in a Mirage turns into a terrible nightmare sequence for one of the lads towards the end of the game. I’m spoiling as little as possible.
The writing and story are incredible with their strange mixture of magic, realism and a whole dash of social and political discussions. It does it without being too labored. It’s a three-day glimpse into three young gay men and their anxieties, triumphs, and the effects of coming out of lockdown.
The gameplay is pretty much what you would expect from a visual novel, which is hardly anything at all. In a normal day, you are just pressing to get to the next piece of the story. In the mirages, there is a bit more choice and direction to what you can do and choose. There are also secret achievements to find, along with bits of extra story.
I think the game’s visuals are outstanding, very much like a graphic novel on drugs. There’s strange framing, unusual cuts in the editing of the animation, and dazzling lighting. If Lorenzo Redaelli doesn’t already make films then they should do so as quickly as possible. The whole experience is full of colour, life, death and sex. It’s a delightful heady visual mix that’s unlike anything else on Xbox.
The same can be said of the soundtrack and effects. They take you by surprise, hitting you with every corner and every new panel of narrative. Mediterranea Inferno is a brilliant and ingenious piece of work.
As was the way with Milky Way Prince, Lorenzo Redaelli hits a very high bar with Mediterranea Inferno, especially in terms of what can be achieved with a visual novel. Its dynamic high energy storytelling is superbly crafted, brilliantly executed throughout. I don’t think the gameplay elements will be interesting enough for anyone looking for anything more from a game other than reading and watching. But the material is challenging for an Xbox game; and that is a very good thing.
If you want something that will have you thinking about it for weeks afterwards, then Mediterranea Inferno is going to be for you. Â
