Taking on this indie title was something I have been looking forward to, but the length and experience I got from the journey were unexpected. Easily one of the most thought out and full-fledged titles, especially from an indie team, is Someday You’ll Return by CBE Software. Before beginning this game, prepare yourself to go on a journey that will take quite some time to get through. I’m sure that leaves you wondering if it is even worth it and the simple answer is “Yes.” Now, let’s dive into the details.

Story

After your daughter goes missing, the only logical conclusion of where she ran away to is the camp in which you took her to multiple times throughout her childhood. Believing you are the only one that can truly find her, you head out to the forest-engulfed campsite in hopes of finding signs of her presence. While there, you definitely find evidence that she is there, but the other thing you find is something that you weren’t expecting to and just might not be able to handle: The Truth!

Gameplay

This game is best described as a healthy mixture between Firewatch and Outlast. Through a good majority of the game, you won’t actually be in danger and they don’t pretend like you are. However, there are plenty of segments where you are in direct danger and will need to either make quick decisions or stay hidden as you move, if not both.

Starting off the game, you find yourself entering the forest in your car until you reach a downed tree. From here you get the first taste of control which is simply walk, run, or access your phone for tracking, messaging, and phone calls. You will get to access journals as well, but this comes into play once you start having inventory items, journal entries, and start potion-making. To get things moving, your character makes a statement about where you need to go and you can use your phone tracking like a map that guides you where to go. Get used to how this is set up quickly because they do not hold your hand here and once you enter the forest area, the full map becomes available to explore meaning you can easily get sidetracked or lost.

During this calm part of the game, you will find yourself collecting items, sometimes in order to get all the parts to put them together to make a bigger tool which is shown to you by gathering the items needed to make your potion making kit. You can also find multiple collectibles such as candy wrappers, guitar songs, QR codes, location posts, and more. One of the first things you do find though is your tool belt, sketchily and conveniently enough. These tools will be necessary for many puzzles and progress in the future.

The reason I say these calm moments are relatable to Firewatch is because of how they play out. You come across curious things, there is free roam options with an end goal location in mind for the player, light puzzles to solve in order to find everything, and the game requires one to have some sense of curiosity mixed with self-reliability in order to know where you are, where you need to go, and generally not get lost. Although, one element of the gameplay that stands out more uniquely is the wall climbing aspect where you have to use the correct hand and path in order to find your placements along the wall.

Each calm section will end up throwing you into a dangerous area in the end though. Whether this is an indoor situation or finding yourself in a distorted, disturbing version of somewhere you just were, you will need to be on edge. The times you are inside are the ones I found creepiest because you never know what is around the corner and this game holds the theme that once you get spotted, it is almost impossible to getaway. It is possible, but not easy.

Other than directly avoiding the enemy and hiding as you have for the indoor situations, the outdoor areas are rather interesting. The first time you encounter this situation you are introduced to these creatures that screech when they find you and will be able to pounce on you quickly after. You can lose them, but be sure not to run into another one of them. These sections don’t really guide you because the character is just as confused as you are, but basically you need to destroy the heart of the area. The sections blocked off by quick killing hands erupting from the ground will open up once destroyed. In order to destroy a heart, you will need to find the tool used on an already destroyed heart in a different section of the first outdoor encounter. After this, you will keep that tool on you and it will just be a matter of finding the heart of the section.

The next time you reach these dangerous outdoor areas you will be shown of a new tool for you to use that immobilizes and lifts up the weaker enemies. It has to be used in soft ground, so it can’t be used on any concrete which makes them useless indoors and in multiple other areas. This new tool will also be helpful for pathway puzzles where one of the creatures that are stuck to a rock can be lifted, taking the rock into the air with them. You don’t have to pick it back up once you use it, so just charge it up, stick it in the ground, and keep moving forward.

Now, let’s get into potion-making. Throughout the forest lies the ingredients you need for the potions, so be sure to keep a good stash of them with you. I am talking about the flowers that are located just about everywhere. I found the best way to stay well stashed is to grab the max amount of flowers, chop them up to fill up the individual piece drawers, and then fill back up on the flowers themselves. You can only make potions once you have the ingredients and recipe, but if you mess up the process you have to start over and you don’t get any used ingredients back. Make sure you read the recipe carefully as you make the potion. The variety of potions you can make have different uses and each is explained on the recipe along with a segment of the game requiring you to use that potion, so it is easy to quickly understand the whole process.

Visuals

While they aren’t the absolute level of stunning, the graphics are still a beautiful aesthetic. Whether looking at the finer details or the overall landscape from a high point, this game definitely has its visuals as a positive mark to the game. Not to mention plenty of funny, subtle easter eggs - my favorite being the rock lobsters on the riverbed near the camp.

Sounds

There are times that you are left without music, which lets you enjoy the sound effects of nature itself, but for a forest, it was rather quiet. When they did have music, it was well suited for whatever scenario was going on and the sound effects used for scenery and enemy definitely indicated the level of danger the player was in while guiding them simultaneously.

Replayability

There is a good and a bad ending to the game, but there is an obvious point in which the ending you end up with is being marked. Since the game saves incredibly often, you can easily go to the checkpoint of the first mark and just change what you need to get the other ending. Other than that, there are tons of collectibles and sites to see throughout the forest if you want to explore the land fully. The overall story and puzzles will remain the same, but they give un-marked side quests to fulfill an adventurer's curiosity.

What Could Be Better

During my playthrough, they were missing some sound effects, such as ladder climbing, but a patch was sent out shortly after that patched this along with a few other issues. This is worth mentioning though because it shows the developers are continuing to improve the small issues for players even after completion.

They should add more ambiance sound effects to the game though. Bird chirps, rustling trees, louder water, random pitter-patters, and so on. These are things that bring a forest to life and could even provide false spooks for players, even during the calm sections of the game. This may have been done to increase the feeling of isolation for the player, but based on specific aspects within the game (unspecified to avoid spoilers), I don’t believe that is what they were aiming for.

Soft-lock points are too easy to hit. I found myself reloading autosaves just to rewind 10 minutes of gameplay because I got myself stuck in a spot where the save itself is broken. It’s a good thing they didn’t go with the traditional manual save slots with an auto-save option because I would have had to reset to my last manual save at least four times for this issue alone. This is a downside to having a large game progression, but if they can solidify these segments then it shouldn’t be a problem.

CBE: Feel free to message me on Twitter or Email for these moments if you would like specifics.

Conclusion

Someday You’ll Return is a unique title that fights multiple genres. Easily one of the most intricate indie games I’ve played. It has sections that are enthralling, it gets you to unexpectedly feel negatively towards your own character while having a fitting ending, and it has a way to explain its confusing style with both lore and scenery. The path was strange, the experience was stranger, and the entertainment was throughout.