The time is now for Stuck in the Present

• Announcements by Jack Allin
• Published:

Demo also available for narrative-driven psychological side-scroller on Steam for Windows and Mac

Normally adventure games about train rides involve grisly murders or grand heists, but it's a mystery of a more personal nature at the heart of Dusk Wave Arts's newly released psychological side-scroller Stuck in the Present.

Faye is a young Filipina woman trying her best to adjust to life in a still-unfamiliar North American city, unable to remember much of her old life. She is joined each day by her good friend Rich, on whom she depends greatly – perhaps too much so – but Faye has begun to feel caught in the rut of "quiet complacency in their lives." However, their daily routine is unexpectedly disrupted when "painful memories resurface" and manifest as "horrors from an unresolved past forgotten in the Philippines." Now the two friends find themselves "ensnared in the distorted corridors of a decrepit subway station" and the only way to escape is to confront buried traumas by exploring "living memories of their past." In doing so, their friendship will be put to the test as Faye learns to reckon with her "unhealthy codependency" that prevents her from straying too far from Rich without feeling consumed by darkness, her anxieties spawning "greater dangers around the station." 

Described as a "psychological horror title," Stuck in the Present is neither a typical adventure game nor a typical horror story. Much of the action takes place along a side-scrolling plane, though it's interspersed with behind-the-back camera scenes as well as first-person interactions whenever Faye sits and reflects on meaningful items, even drawing some of them in her notebook and commenting on their significance. While the game ostensibly takes place on subway cars and the "tiled underbelly of station passageways," the "line between distortion and reality becomes increasingly thin" as the environment transforms into minimalist sepia-toned memories and even vibrantly coloured recollections of life in the Philippines. Along the way there are items to interact with to "decipher their connection to Faye’s past," but the focus here is not on challenging puzzles but rather exploration and fully voiced dialogue. Player choice plays an important role in conversation, as different responses promise to impact "the outcome of the narrative and the two friends’ relationship."

For those ready to dive head-first into the currents of time, as Faye would describe it, the complete version of Stuck in the Present is now available on Steam. If you'd rather check out a trial portion of the game first, you can do that as well as a playable demo is also available for Windows and Mac.