and Roger

Genre: Interactive Story

Players: 1

.

Review:

and Roger is an Interactive Story released in 2025 on PC and Nintendo Switch, and this is one of those games that made me really contemplate how to go about writing a review for it, because I feel like the more I explain, the less you’ll be able to discover for yourself. As such, I’m going to try to be as brief as possible.

This is a game that plays in a similar fashion to Florence, where the gameplay isn’t win or lose, and the context of how you interact with the game changes to reflect what the protagonist, Sofia, is doing as you follow her story through her life.

However, while Florence’s interaction seemed gimmicky and clever for the sake of being clever, and Roger’s interaction is gimmicky and clever to help bring you into some semblance of Sofia’s experience, to better tell the story.

And what is that story? I… can’t tell you. While I had a pretty good idea where things were going early on, other players will likely need to discover it for themselves. I’ll just tell you how the story starts – Sofia, a young girl, awakens to find her father missing and a strange man in her household bossing her around. Sofia, confused and frightened, must try to find a way to escape her captor. What evolves from this is one of the most heart-wrenching stories I’ve encountered this year.

The rest of this game’s presentation makes use of sketchy hand-drawn visuals that look amateurish but sometimes have some really nice animation to them, and have an almost abstract style that works well for the sort of story being told here. This is backed by some nice instrumental music that fits the tone this game is looking to convey.

When it comes to complaints, I do feel like this is a game that could have benefitted from touchscreen controls, which would have cut down on some of the frustration this game pushes on players with its slow on-screen cursor. Also, I suppose some will be disappointed at how short this game is, since it can be completed within an hour, though the $5 price tag makes this easier to swallow. That said, I do feel like the story could have been stretched out a bit more, to really get us better-acquainted with this game’s characters.

However, it’s hard to complain too much about and Roger. $5 for a moving experience is a deal in my book, though I would warn players away from this game if they have a distaste for stories that touch on deeply sad topic matters. And if you’re reading this review and feel like I haven’t really given you an idea what this game is actually about… good. Because I’m worried I’ve already said too much.

tl;dr – and Roger is an Interactive Story whose story and gameplay I dare not get into too much detail on for fear of spoiling it for you. Just know that the gameplay is wholly in service to the story, which is a moving experience, if a brief one that’s over within an hour or so. However, for only $5, I think this is well worth experiencing, if you don’t mind a story that can be heart-wrenching.

Grade: A-

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