Welcome to Elk

Genre: Graphic Adventure

Players: 1

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Review:

Welcome to Elk is a Graphic Adventure released on PC and Xbox One in 2020 and ported to Nintendo Switch in 2022. This story follows a young woman named Frigg after she arrives on the island of Elk, a small Danish island with a small-town vibe. As she becomes a part of their close-knit community, she is gradually exposed to their stories, and in a sense becomes a conduit for those stories.

Okay, I’m going to try to be careful not to reveal any spoilers here, but suffice it to say that Welcome to Elk has some odd postmodernist elements woven throughout the game. These high-concept elements add an intriguing air of mystery to the game, but I think it’s probably best not to read too much into them. This is mainly a story about the various goings-on in this small-town community as its people go about their day-to-day life.

In that respect, Welcome to Elk is small in its scope, taking roughly 3-4 hours to complete, and while a lot happens in those 3-4 hours, none of it is Earth-shaking. People go about their daily lives, their personalities occasionally clash, they cope with a death in the community, they try to adjust to the eccentricities of some of the more unusual people in the community, they find whatever excuses they can to celebrate and break up the monotony of the day-to-day, and they drink. A lot. And they tell stories.

While I appreciate that this game was trying for something different with the postmodernist elements, I kinda’ feel like they distract from the semi-autobiographical stories that are clearly at the heart of the game. And these postmodernist elements don’t feel like they ultimately built up to any great revelation or anything, just more of a “huh… okay”.

Players will mostly spend the game walking around and talking to people, but there are occasional minigames strewn throughout, all adding some nice variety to the gameplay, but none of them feeling especially impactful. They’re fine, I just feel like more could have been done with them. Similarly, your role in the story seems largely a passive one – you don’t make any choices that impact the story, although I feel like this is somewhat intentional – your role here is to be a witness and to listen, not to contribute to the story in any significant way.

The presentation here is nice but simple, featuring colorful, cartoony, hand-drawn 3D characters with goofy bouncy walking animations, and mostly monochrome backgrounds. At a few points in the story, you’ll encounter brief live-action snippets of video, generally with one person sharing a story with you that will seem vaguely similar to a recent event in the in-game story (one of those postmodern elements I mentioned), and all I can say about these is that they seem genuine, and it’s pretty clear that these are people sharing real events, not actors.

Throughout the game, the story will be backed by a catchy soundtrack with a very “indie” feel. Some of the noteworthy songs here are relaxed acoustic songs like Home Sweet Home and Anders Cave, heartfelt acoustic guitar and vocal melodies like The Bravery of Beth, Singing Goodbye and Wayfaring Stranger, and the odd but strangely compelling mix of banjo and electric guitar that is Out and About.

All in all, I found Welcome to Elk to be an enjoyable experience, with its appealing artistic style, great music, good writing, and likable cast of characters. Its stories are compelling even if they’re not building up to anything especially profound, and even though the game’s more unusual elements probably detract from those stories more than it adds to them. If you’re looking for an enjoyable few hours in a small-town environment, Welcome to Elk is well worth a look.

tl;dr – Welcome to Elk is a Graphic Adventure where players take the role of a young woman arriving at the titular island of Elk, becoming a part of their local small-town life, and partaking in their various stories. These stories aren’t building up to anything especially profound, and they’re muddied somewhat by some odd postmodern elements threaded through the game, but the game is still ultimately enjoyable thanks to its likable characters, solid writing, appealing art style, and great music. If this sounds like something you might enjoy, Welcome to Elk is well worth a try.

Grade: B

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2022 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: Best Graphic Adventure / Visual Novel, Best Song (Out and About, by Andreas Busk), Most Overlooked

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