Company of Myself

Before I start, let me fully acknowledge that that this game is pretty old by flash standards, and by pretty old, I mean its about a year old.I didn't come across any interesting daily releases, so I chose to pluck one of my favorite flash games ever out of the vault and examine it.

Company of myself is a puzzle platformer by 2dArray, told from an abstract first person point of view. The narration appears as you get to different levels and different sections of each level. Nearly every level you play multiple times, and during a level you simply press the spacebar to leave a shadow which you, or other shadows can interact with. You essentially turn all of your past, present, and future selves into movable platforms to help you achieve your success. The are also different barriers which either prevent shadow selves from passing through, or preventing one's current self from passing through. With these two gameplay aspects, all of the levels are created.

As far as level design goes, it's pretty well done. Each level is built with the intent to show off some mechanic of the game, and it both does this, while mixing in important story elements at the same time. The levels rarely rely on actual platforming skill, rather an ounce of foresight into the puzzle is equivalent to a gallon of platforming skill.

On the graphical front, the game really isn't all that impressive. Its all passable, but there obviously wasn't much effort put behind it. While it doesn't detract from the game in any way, it certainly doesn't make the game any more memorable.

The story of the game is really the heart of it. Since most people have played it by now, what I say next will be unspoilered. If you haven't played the game yet, I'd advise skipping this paragraph, or better yet, playing the game. As it turns out the narrator you play as turns out to be crazy, and undergoing some type of regressive therapy, which involves him rethinking past events of his life, including the ones about his wife, Kathryn. He's obviously not all there, and how Kathryn died is ambiguous, but it obviously caused the mental problems he suffers. The last bit of the game seems to imply he feels responsible for her death, but it doesn't elaborate how.

The game runs about twenty minutes long and is overall just a joy to play. If you are looking for a very quiet, slow paced game with a great story, you must play Company of Myself.