Edengate: The Edge of Life is an odd beast. This is obvious even from the trailer and is also part of the reason why I wanted to check it out. First off, it is a game being released for the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One in late 2022. At the time of writing, there is not yet a release date set for PS5 or Xbox Series X/S versions of the game. I played through the game on my PS5, however there is no PS5 version available on the PlayStation store.
Edengate: The Edge of Life is out now and is available on PC, PlayStation and Xbox consoles.
The game was originally set to release on October 25th, before being pushed to November 15th. I naively thought that the reason for this may have been that the developers can bring the game to current-gen consoles. Nope, it turns out the reason for the delay is just one more thing about Edengate: The Edge of Life which is inexplicable.
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As if that wasn’t odd enough, there have been a number of folk online claiming that this game was removed from the Xbox store for a period of time immediately after its release date. Even after spending a good hour researching the reason for this, I am still coming up blank on the reason why this occurred. It is available to purchase on the Xbox store at the time of writing.
The abnormalities surrounding Edengate: The Edge of Life are abundant, however the absolute strangest thing about this super basic walking simulator may be the fact that I actually really enjoyed my time with it.
It is true that the game only lasts for around ninety minutes. It is true that the puzzles are some of the simplest puzzles ever featured in a video game. It is also true that beyond walking and interacting with a few objects in the environment, you don’t actually do much in Edengate: The Edge of Life.
Despite all of this, I really enjoyed the brief time that I spent with it. Completing this more docile experience in one sitting actually served as a nice respite from some of the other, more intense titles which I have been playing recently.
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The goal of Edengate: The Edge of Life isn’t to tell a convoluted story on a grand scale, and its goal certainly isn’t to provide players with a tough challenge to overcome. Instead, the only thing which Edengate: The Edge of Life has seemingly been made to do, is to create a vibe. The rich tone and eerie atmosphere that the game is able to achieve is palpable. It is especially impressive when you consider how short and simple the overall experience is.
Edengate: The Edge of Life was developed at the height of the worldwide Covid-19 lockdown. That feeling of overwhelming isolation which we all experienced over the last two years in the real world has clearly inspired the development of this game. This real-world parallel lends the game a feeling of significance and importance which it wouldn’t have had otherwise. It also helps the player to immediately relate to the feelings that the main character is experiencing.
At the end of the day, there are undoubtedly going to be players who come away disappointed at the length and simplicity of Edengate: The Edge of Life, but I appreciated it for what it was. Despite its subpar graphics and slightly rough technical performance, Edengate has a pretty unique charm to it which is hard to deny.
Edengate: The Edge of Life – 7/10
Edengate: The Edge of Life was reviewed on PS5 with a code provided by Press Engine.
