Before I Forget

Before I Forget is a first-person adventure game set in a contemporary world, following Sunita, a female protagonist grappling with dementia as she navigates her fading memories, home, and past life filled with romance, mystery, and personal triumphs in a deeply emotive, interactive narrative experience.

Before I Forget: Review

Introduction

Imagine wandering through the familiar corridors of your own home, only to find them shrouded in monochrome haze, objects whispering half-forgotten secrets, and your sense of self slipping away like sand through trembling fingers. This is the haunting intimacy of Before I Forget, a 2020 narrative exploration game that transforms the terror of memory loss into a profound meditation on life, love, and identity. Developed by the micro-studio 3-Fold Games, it emerged as a Humble Original and quickly garnered BAFTA nominations, etching its place in indie history as a bold, empathetic portrayal of early-onset dementia. As a game journalist and historian, I’ve chronicled countless titles, but few match this one’s raw emotional precision. My thesis: Before I Forget is not merely a game but a vital artifact of interactive empathy, defying industry norms to deliver a one-hour masterpiece that humanizes Alzheimer’s, celebrates a woman’s extraordinary life, and influences how games tackle mental health with unflinching grace.

Development History & Context

Before I Forget was born from serendipity at the XX+ Game Jam in Bristol, UK, in 2016—a women and non-binary-focused event themed around “borders.” Chella Ramanan, a Scottish-Caribbean narrative designer then living in Sweden, and Claire Morwood, a self-taught Scottish programmer and artist, were strangers paired together. Ramanan had long toyed with a concept of memory and identity loss, viewing dementia as an internal “border” metaphor—far from the event’s more literal interpretations like refugee crises or political walls. Their 24-hour prototype, featuring protagonist Sunita in a greyscale house where interacting with objects restored color and triggered flashbacks, won the Audience Choice Award. This validation propelled them to form 3-Fold Games, a remote duo working evenings and weekends without initial funding.

Development spanned four grueling years, marked by bootstrapping and rejection. Investors balked at its brevity (averaging one hour), prompting failed experiments to extend gameplay that diluted its intimacy. Traditional game funding deemed it “too gamey” for arts grants and too short for commercial backers. A pivotal chance encounter with a healthcare worker led to collaborations with Gaming The Mind (a mental health charity) and psychiatrists like Dr. Donald Sevant and Dr. David Codling, ensuring authentic depictions of dementia symptoms—puzzles mimicking spatial disorientation, internal monologues reflecting anxiety over horror. Playtesters shared personal anecdotes, refining the emotional timeline. Humble Bundle’s financing enabled voice acting, PR, and polish, launching it as a June 2020 Humble Choice title before full PC release (Windows, Mac, Linux) on July 16, 2020, via Steam, GOG, and itch.io. Console ports (Nintendo Switch, Xbox One/Series X/S) followed April 29, 2021, published by Plug In Digital.

Built in Unity with FMOD audio, it navigated 2020’s indie landscape amid a walking-sim boom (What Remains of Edith Finch, Gone Home) but stood out by centering underrepresented voices: a female protagonist of Indian heritage (inspired by painter Amrita Sher-Gil), crafted by women of color and white women respectively. Ramanan and Morwood’s remote workflow—90% digital, 10% in-person “soup-slurping” sessions—mirrored pandemic-era development, while their mission to amplify diverse narratives foreshadowed Ramanan’s co-founding of POC in Play and AAA work on Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.

Narrative & Thematic Deep Dive

At its core, Before I Forget is Sunita Appleby’s fragmented odyssey through her London flat, a vessel for unraveling her life amid early-onset Alzheimer’s. Players embody Sunita, a brilliant astrophysicist of Indian descent who immigrated to the UK in the 1960s, voicing plaintive queries like “Is this the right place? What did I come out here for?” The plot unfolds non-linearly via object interactions—faded postcards, scribbled notes, photographs, a tattered calendar—triggering vivid flashbacks that restore color to the desaturated world. We piece together her romance with musician Dylan Appleby (voiced by Mason Scott Robinson), their cultural fusion (Indian paintings amid British decor), family ties (sister Leela, voiced by Bushra Lashkar; friend Maria, voiced by Reshma Madhi), and childhood stargazing with her aunt.

The narrative pivots from mystery (“Where is Dylan?”) to elegy, revealing Sunita’s professional triumphs, relational joys, and dementia’s inexorable toll—shifting mazes symbolizing spatial confusion, sluggish controls evoking mental fog. Dialogue, via interior monologue and VO (Anjali Kunapaneni as Sunita), is sparse yet piercing: fragmented, repetitive, laced with anxiety. Additional writing from Martine Lillycrop enriches subtext.

Thematically, it interrogates memory as identity: Who remains when recollections fade? It celebrates Sunita’s “extraordinary life” beyond disease—scientific curiosity, interracial love, immigrant resilience—without pity. Dementia is anxiety incarnate, not horror; greyscale/clarity dichotomies visualize lucidity’s fragility. Cultural borders blend (Indian motifs in a Western home), echoing the jam’s theme, while motifs like piano refrains (Dylan’s music) and star constellations weave loss with wonder. Critics like Eurogamer’s Christian Donlan praised its “insight and generosity,” foregrounding Sunita’s agency. The finale, a “disconcerting” toll on relationships, underscores love’s endurance amid erasure, leaving interpretive space for theory-crafting.

Gameplay Mechanics & Systems

Before I Forget eschews traditional loops for pure narrative exploration in first-person direct control, classifying it as a walking simulator with light puzzles. Core mechanics revolve around memory triggers: scan rooms for interactive objects (letters, photos) to unlock flashbacks, gradually “completing” the house—unlocking doors, filling voids, banishing black-hole barriers. Progression is organic: early confusion (locked paths, looping halls) mirrors dementia, evolving to fuller navigation as memories cohere.

Puzzle-like challenges innovate subtly: recall memento locations amid disorientation, guide Sunita to the bathroom through a “shifting maze,” or interpret distorted cues. Controls deliberately sluggish—mouse sensitivity wanes during fog—immersing players in cognitive decline, slowing to normalcy post-recall. No combat, progression, or HUD clutters the UI; minimalism (simple prompts, loading-screen commentary toggle) prioritizes atmosphere. Achievements (10 on Steam) reward discovery, like examining all objects.

Flaws are minor: brevity risks feeling insubstantial for some, and direct revelations occasionally spoon-feed (e.g., explicit career reveals), curbing player deduction. Yet innovations shine—symptom simulation defies “game design rules,” per GamesIndustry.biz—making it a masterclass in empathetic interactivity. Playtime: 45-90 minutes, ideal for one sitting.

World-Building, Art & Sound

Sunita’s modest flat is a microcosm of her psyche: initially a claustrophobic, greyscale labyrinth of stale air and ominous hums, evolving into a vibrant cultural mosaic—Indian artworks by Amrita Sher-Gil homages atop Western furniture, star charts nodding to astrophysics. Atmosphere builds via light toggles (shadowy dread to warm nostalgia), shifting furniture (forgotten rearrangements), and spatial warps, evoking existential disorientation.

Morwood’s Unity art direction mesmerizes: painterly stylization shifts from desaturated confusion (Intel HD4000-friendly) to saturated clarity, with fluid color propagation like memory bleeding in. Additional art from AJ Murdoch, Emma Haynes (character design), and Ramanan adds detail—postcards evoke immigration, notes hint at Dylan’s tours.

Sound design elevates: Jake Basten’s FMOD work layers footsteps in silence, Dave Tucker’s emotive piano (available on Bandcamp) searches like fading refrains, AV distortion cues symptoms. VO direction by Adele Cutting breathes life—Sunita’s vulnerability, ensemble warmth—culminating in goosebump metaphors. Together, they forge immersion: a “melancholy but poignant” sensory symphony, per Qualbert, amplifying emotional resonance.

Reception & Legacy

Launching amid 2020’s indie surge, Before I Forget earned “Very Positive” Steam (90%, 172 reviews), MobyGames 82% critics (Phenixx 95%, Nintendo Life 80%, Edge 70%), Metacritic 76-88, and OpenCritic 82 (100% recommend). The Guardian hailed a “memorable, affecting journey”; PC Gamer’s Harry Shepherd named it 2020’s favorite for demystifying Alzheimer’s; Eurogamer’s Henry Stockdale called it 2021’s most memorable “masterpiece.” BAFTA-nominated (Game Beyond Entertainment), Games for Change (Most Innovative), it featured in TechRadar’s “best by Black creators/women designers.”

Commercially modest ($1.99-7.99, Humble bundles), its legacy endures via cultural impact: amplifying POC/women-led narratives, inspiring mental health games (A Short Hike kin). Ramanan’s POC in Play and Ubisoft work extend influence; it partners with Alzheimer’s Research UK. Reputation evolved from “art piece” to essential, influencing empathetic sims and diversity pushes.

Conclusion

Before I Forget distills a lifetime’s joys and fractures into an hour of unflinching beauty, its innovative mechanics and sensory mastery forging empathy where exposition fails. From jam prototype to BAFTA contender, 3-Fold Games’ triumph proves micro-studios can redefine gaming’s emotional scope. Flaws in length pale against its compassionate innovation—a “crucial experience” etching dementia into canon. Verdict: An indelible 9.5/10, essential for historians, mandatory for humanity. Play it, remember it, before you forget.