Deer & Boy Review | A Wordless, Tear-Jerking Coming-of-Age Story

If you make an indie game that is gonna make me cry, then there’s a good chance I’ll play it.

I heard about Deer & Boy a few years ago and immediately knew it was something I needed to play. I mean you have a pet deer after all, that’s awesome. It looked like the kind of game that would be a real tear-jerker and would be genuinely engaging from a narrative and an artistic point of view.

And I am so glad to finally say that it is, and that I loved it. Here’s my review of Deer & Boy.

Are you Ready to Feel?

Deer and Boy is the kind of game you play for it’s story. It’s a narrative indie game surrounding a boy who chooses to run away from home, and the deer he ends up befriending. It’s one of those coming of age stories that isn’t doing too much to push the medium, but doing more than enough to be an emotional and engaging time.

This is a “Story told without words” experience, similar in vein to something like Neva. It prefers to use expressions or basic sounds from the characters to convey the narrative, its a choice that I think ends up working really well throughout the game, especially in its moments towards the end where the emotions run high without a single word being uttered.

That’s not to say it’s perfect by any means. One gripe I have is the games antagonist, if you can call it that. Throughout the game you’ll see this dark purple goo type substance, that overtime grows to become a major obstacle and enemy in your way. 

I think my primary issue is this feels like a rather overdone trope now, especially in indie games like this. A dark evil substance that’s a metaphor for deeper issues, it used to work really well, but the more I encounter it the less its impact holds. I do wish we could maybe come up with a new way of portraying these story moments without relying on something like this.

But even with that, when the games narrative shines, it really does shine. There’s plenty of moments making you smile and ones which might end up bringing a tear or two out of you. So I can’t say it isn’t effective, when it absolutely was for me. 

Is it at all engaging to play though? 

Gameplay isn’t why you come to Deer & Boy. That’s not to say it’s bad, but you’re coming to this for its scenery and storytelling. The game is full of puzzles you’ll need to solve, and it does a great job at expanding on those puzzles ad the game continues.

Throughout the story, you’ll be needing to sneak through situations and need to figure out how you can reach one area without being seen. This is fairly common at the start, when you’re on your own. It’s nothing overly challenging and nothing you won’t be familiar with if you’ve played any Limbo inspired titles like this.

Later on you get access to your deer, this starts to open up some more interesting gameplay systems. Your deer sits comfortably in your backpack once you first meet it, this causes you to be unable to do certain actions such as climbing or moving through water. Because of this, you need to leave the deer behind and find a new path you can carry them through.

This type of evolution happens throughout the game, as your deer grows older the puzzles you’re faced with change appropriately. It makes it so that you’re rarely doing the same actions throughout the game but need to keep rethinking your approach. That said, it never becomes overly challenging or makes you think too hard.

Outside of puzzles this is your average 2D narrative game affair. You run to the right and jump over obstacles while the story unfolds. Occasionally you’ll have moments where you’re needing to quickly evade enemies and you’re quickly sprinting through corridors. These sections can be really satisfying, they’re not a huge challenge but quickly getting through the tense encounters does end up filling you with some pride. 

There isn’t any combat in this game either, the enemies you encounter are usually needed to be dealt with by not dealing with them. Finding a route around them is always your best bet. This decision helps make each encounter become a more stressful experience, as you know you can’t face this head on. But combat isn’t the thing you’ll remember most from this, that goes to its art direction.

Get your screenshot button ready

Deer and Boy might be the game I’ve screenshot the most this year. It’s just jaw dropping at almost every moment. I’ve littered images of the game throughout this review so you can see what I mean, but it really is one of those games you should experience.

The way the game presents itself, not just through art style but through its camera work and overall positioning is fantastic. It’s an incredibly cinematic experience in how it uses its visuals to portray the story and make it even more impactful. 

One of the most impressive things is how it takes relatively drab and mundane environments and still makes them visually appealing, there was so many times I kept playing just because I wanted to keep taking in the vistas the devs wanted to show me. 

Verdict

At the end of the day, I love these types of games. Even with some of Deer and Boy’s shortcomings, I ended up finding it an incredibly enjoyable few hours to play through. One that I can very comfortably recommend to people who find Indie titles like this their cup of tea.