Game Review: Pinstripe
Pinstripe is an atmospheric indie adventure game published in 2017. It features a priest who loses his daughter and must go in search of her. As you play you become aware of this sense of Teddy, the priest, having lost his faith. And as you explore you find out more of what’s going on around both Teddy and Bo, his daughter.
This is one of those games that is perfect to play in the autumn. You can grab yourself a little blanket, pour yourself a hot cup of cocoa, tea, or whatever it is you prefer to drink and relax into this strange little world. The visuals are cozy, pretty and soft. It’s not painterly, but the graphics somehow feel smooth and inviting. The music is wistful and atmospheric, with some songs taken right from 1920s public archives that you can play over and over if you wish. I really enjoy how inviting Pinstripe feels, overall.
Although I do find it to be cozy, there is a sense of being alone in this world, even as you do come across a few characters and helpers along the way. The makers likely intended that Pinstripe vaguely hit the horror genre, especially the kind of horror games that people like me play! In other words, it’s not scary, the creepiness is simply an atmospheric addition, alongside a few other sensations and themes. And that is, to me, the ideal kind of game.
One of my favourite parts of this little game is the simplistic game mechanics. It doesn’t feel stiff, the jump is high enough by default, there’s no need to run and slide off the edge of cliffs, triple tap or earn new jump bonusses, you can literally just…. jump. And you do a lot of it.
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I do wish there were a bit more ways to explore the world, more things to pick up and more puzzles to solve, but I can appreciate that this game isn’t intended to be one that you put 300 or even 30 hours into. I played it in 2.5 days and I’m grateful that I got to at all.
I recommend Pinstripe to gamers who have enjoyed games like: Fran Bow, Alice: Madness Returns, Oxen Free, Night in the Woods, and even walking sims like What Remains of Edith Finch. I basically just listed some games from my favourite game genre here. Additionally, I do think people that enjoy cozy games will also enjoy this. That can be something like Spiritfarer or Stardew Valley, though those games include far more story and game-play hours than this.
Some gamers might complain that Pinstripe is too short of a game. After completing it you can go back in and finish off a few achievements, though that would likely not take too much longer to do. You can finish the base game in around five hours, less if you’re just very good at figuring out puzzles.
Rating: 4.5/5
I gave this a high rating because it was exactly what I needed to play at this point in time. Hopefully you’ll enjoy it as much as I did!
Pinstripe is available to play on Steam, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and MacOS.
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