Developer: btf
Platforms: PC (Reviewed), PS 5, Xbox Series X|S
Genre: Adventure
Publisher: btf, ByteRockers’ Games, and PARCO GAMES.
The Berlin Apartment is a narrative-driven exploration game. The game is developed by btf and published by btf, ByteRockers’ Games, and PARCO GAMES. The Berlin Apartment captures the beauty of reliving moments from back in the past. This review was done for PC, but the game is also available for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
The Berlin Apartment takes place entirely inside one apartment in Berlin, yet somehow spans almost a hundred years. In the present year of 2020, a handyman named Malik is refurbishing the place, and his daughter Dilara starts digging into its hidden cornices, uncovering relics of the past. Every object they find sparks a memory, leading Malik to tell her stories of the people who once lived there.
You get to actually relive four different eras: 1933, 1945, 1967 and 1989, each showing a different life and perspective shaped by the city’s history. It is quite how one single apartment holds the weight of a whole century. The Berlin Apartment has a beautiful written story with gameplay that is light and refreshing. You mostly walk around, complete small tasks, inspect objects and listen to dialogue. It is not trying to be a hardcore game but more like an interactive story that is chill and meaningful.
Some of the gameplay mechanics are extremely creative, like the way you physically mimic movements with your mouse. Folding a paper aeroplane is actually folding it. I loved this mechanic so much, as you get to act out the interactive movement with your mouse, which I thought was really fun. One of my main issues with this was that whilst you are making the aeroplane, it cuts out dialogue if you finish the making of the plane too early, which does take away from the narrative experience (of course, you can always read the subtitles/text, but the game has such nice voice acting that it is a shame).
Each era introduces a new gameplay twist that connects to the character’s emotional state. In 1989, I was throwing and steering an aeroplane across the Berlin Wall. In 1945, you are a kid who is collecting scraps to decorate and warm up your frozen room. In 1933, you pack a suitcase as an elderly person packing a suitcase. Lastly, in 1967, you are a sci-fi author who gets to make dialogue choices.
What is so interesting about this game is that each mechanic that you experience in the four eras portrays the character’s emotional situation. You get this sense of feeling that you are living as them, and these actions that you are put up to do feel surreal. The tasks you carry out may seem simple on the outside, but the narrative they hold is so much more worth it. Like picking up ‘important’ items for your suitcase is an easy task to do at hand, but then trying to figure out what needs to be taken and leaving behind all the memories the other items hold is daunting.
The visuals for this game are warm and cosy with soft, dreamy lighting; it’s a very comfortable type of game. There is so much love in the details. Like seeing a tiny tic-tac-toe doddle on the back of a letter exchanged between characters, which feels real. The visuals do justice in bringing life to the apartment as you see it become renovated. Being brought back to 2020 after revisiting the past, you notice little remnants and details here and there, which is so lovely. Especially the changes in the apartment during the different eras change dramatically with different colour palettes, and furniture shows the player how much the era of Berlin at the time had changed. This game features voice acting, which is subtle and sweet. I love how the voice acting was integrated into the visuals so nicely. Listening to the dialogue is a great way to know what needs to be done next, though you can also see your objectives by pressing escape.
There were some instances where minimising the game would freeze the game, so you would need to restart, which was an annoying little bug in the game. I will say that I wish there were maybe another two or three more stories that sort of completed the timeline and brought together the present times. I do love that the stories are broken into short sequences, as it captures the emotional strength the lives carry through with a runtime of roughly 4 hours. I do wish there were more with consideration of the game’s price. I will say that this game did a great job at exploring and telling the story of the history of Berlin, and as someone who knows not much about it, I was able to learn quite a few bits.
If you are looking for a heartfelt, story-driven experience that blends history, emotions and clever interactive moments, The Berlin Apartment is definitely worth stepping into. Whether you are catching tiny details in each era or just taking in the warmth of its storytelling, each chapter pulls you deeper into the lives that once filled those walls. So be sure to check out The Berlin Apartment!
Overall: 8/10
This is S & S. We are world game explorers. We play games. We have played over 10,000+ games! We travel, we write reviews AND we play more games!!!!
