Since the Covid-19 pandemic forces us to be inventive for Valentine's Day, why not spend a romantic evening playing video games?
The French studio The Game Bakers, based in Montpellier, has the perfect game: "Haven", a space adventure centered on the couple, original and very endearing.
For lack of restaurant, cinema and theater, we have to be inventive for Valentine's Day Covid-19 version.
There is an original way to spend the evening between lovers: in front of a video game!
In this case
Haven
, a very original French creation since we do not play a hero or a heroine but a couple.
The game was released in December on PC, Playstation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X and on February 4 on Playstation 4 and Nintendo Switch, just in time for Valentine's Day.
Indeed, if you can play it alone,
Haven
is specially designed for a two-person experience.
Very successful, it was rewarded with six nominations for the Pégases 2021, the ceremony which honors French video games.
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Romeo and Juliet in space
The couple at the heart of the game are Yu and his companion Kay.
They are young, they are beautiful, they are intelligent, but in their world, La Ruche, where each one has a specific function and social status, they cannot love each other.
So both take flight aboard the Nest, Yu's ship. An exile that brings them to the Source, a virgin planet split into multiple islets.
When an earthquake seriously damages the shuttle, which serves as their home, the two lovers set off on an adventure in this mysterious new world.
"It's Romeo and Juliet in space," summed up Émeric Thoa, the co-founder and creative director of The Game Bakers studio, based in Montpellier, to Europe 1.
Haven
means "refuge" in English and the title takes on its full meaning in the story of Yu en Kay, in search of a haven of peace to live their love.
In the game, this translates into a noticeable lack of difficulty.
The survival aspect is very easy to manage since the dangers are rare and it is almost impossible to die.
"The heart of the project was to talk about the couple and the intimacy. So we did not choose not to clutter the story with thick and complicated mechanics. We really wanted a relaxing experience", specifies Émeric Thoa .
Live my life as a space explorer
That being said, no question for Yu and Kay to coo all the time either.
On the Source, each day begins at the Nest, the vessel that serves as a base for preparing meals, treating wounds, preparing equipment, etc ... Once ready, we set off on an adventure to the different islets to discover at as it progresses.
The world imagined by the studio The Game Bakers is minimalist: large floating pebbles, covered with grass with, here and there, buildings abandoned by past occupants.
Each island is initially covered with rust that must be cleaned.
© The Game Bakers
To move around, Yu and Kay use boots with which they float above the ground.
They also borrow "flows", kinds of air currents that allow temporary flight and bridges that connect the islets between them.
Some islets are covered with cooking fruit, others harbor useful resources for repairing the ship, still others are inhabited by animals that sometimes attack us.
In this case, a fight begins.
We control the two heroes at the same time with the possibility of performing synchronized special moves.
But nothing very complicated, the level of difficulty being, once again, very low.
In the privacy of a loving couple
In fact, not everyone will adhere to the concept, sometimes a little soft.
Haven
is not strictly speaking a survival game, nor is it a great exploration game.
All the islets are alike, which makes the adventure quite repetitive.
Fortunately, the lifespan is well calculated, about ten hours to complete everything.
In fact, you have to be willing to let yourself go to appreciate the experience offered by The Game Bakers.
Because the interest of the title lies mainly in the representation of the couple.
© The Game Bakers
It is very rare in the video game to embody a couple and
Haven
lingers at length to develop the complicit relationship between Yu and Kay.
Inseparable, we can switch from one to the other at any time when playing alone.
But it works even better when you play two, each with a character.
The more we bond between them, by doing activities, executing synchronized attacks or taking the time to discuss, the stronger they become (increased health and power of the hits).
"It was important to me to talk about the couple. I like romance in cinema, in series, in literature. But I found that in video games it was quite poor or approached in a naive way, not very mature The idea was to talk about the love story on a daily basis and not just the meeting, ”explains Émeric Thoa, the creative director of The Game Bakers.
Successful result: by sharing the intimacy of Yu and Kay, we really get attached to them.
Discussions around meals, bickering, shared fears, jokes are ultimately much more interesting than the exploration phases.
© The Game Bakers
Original artistic biases
If
Haven
is therefore mainly worth its endearing characters, the game has other strengths.
There are real artistic biases.
The graphics inspired by Japanese animation are quite successful, despite the lack of diversity of environments.
On the other hand, we regret a little that the dialogues are only written and spoken but not embodied in cutscenes.
Especially since only an English version with subtitles is available.
But it is above all the music that holds the attention while playing, an intoxicating electro soundtrack, created especially for the occasion by the French musician and composer Danger.
"In all our games, music is a key part of the experience. We had already collaborated with Danger on our previous game. Its sound universe was totally what we were looking for for
Haven
", praises Émeric Thoa.
Available in full on Youtube, the soundtrack alternates between dynamic ranges and more melancholic moments.
A feast for the ears which shows all the care given over four years by the teams of The Game Bakers, a dozen people, no more, to their latest creation.