Umurangi Generation Review

Umurangi Generation is an adventure you play by exploring a city and taking photographs. Unlike other games where the photography is secondary, this is the main way you progress. As you do, you discover a story about ecology, friendship and the importance of enjoying the moment.

You play in a world on the edge of destruction as fires set by earlier generations threaten the planet. You explore this world on a mission to take particular photos and do this with a growing set of camera lenses. Once you have a photo you decide how to develop it with exposure, colour grading and other settings.

The challenge is locating and framing the right subjects to complete your checklist of photos within the time you have for the level. What's nice is that even throw away shots can look great and earn you points.

The story weaves through these photo-journalistic missions and how the world you photograph changes over time. This starts abstractly but becomes increasingly real as the things you've been reading in newspapers start impacting your surroundings. It's clever, environmental storytelling that uses no words.

Umurangi Generation presents your life in the world as inevitably coming to an end. However, rather than the harsh explosive destruction of usual video game apocalypse there is a tranquil acceptance here that life has cycles and the importance of enjoying the time we have.

This is out on PC and coming to Switch soon.