Before Your Eyes now on mobile via Netflix

The World Before Your EyesIt is an arcade game in which the controller literally is your blinking eye. GoodbyeWorld Games developed this game. The World Before Your Eyes was originally released in April last year, but the game’s now on mobile and part of Netflix’s subscription service. That was the push I needed to finally play it, and I can confirm that it’s brilliant. It’s an innovative, emotionally crushing game, and now that it’s on even more platforms, excuses to not play it are quickly dwindling.

The World Before Your Eyes tells the story of a person who’s recently died and is met in the afterlife by a ferryman dedicated to telling the dead’s stories. Benjamin Brynn can’t speak, so he must blink. The story has to be entertaining in its own right, but it is also true — even when it hurts. Because if Benjamin is lying, he’ll stay stuck in this in-between, destined to the afterlife as a squawking seagull.

To recount his story to the ferryman, vignettes from his life literally flash before his — and my — eyes, propelled forward every time I blink. Because the camera on my phone tracks your eye movements throughout the game, it works. I didn’t need this, though; the first calibration stuck and the blinking mechanic worked flawlessly for me throughout. So, I map out Benjamin’s life by blinking, starting from early childhood with his mom and dad.

Benjamin’s mom is an accountant and a composer, a genius on the piano who pushes her child to follow in these footsteps. His dad is there, a source of unconditional support that tampers the pressure of Benjamin’s life. A neighbor best friend and he grows up with them; they complete the story.

The blinking mechanic is evocative, yes, but it’s also a challenge. It is an involuntary process that sometimes blinks. In instances where I wanted to stay in a particular scene, lingering on Benjamin’s memories, they’d be snatched away as I struggled to keep my eyes open; when I don’t want to blink, it’s always harder not to. It’s a perfect reflection of the game’s narrative conceits, because life is, after all, slipping away with each blink of an eye.

I entered The World Before Your Eyes knowing very little about it in general, never exactly making the connection to “life flashing Before your eyes.” I don’t want to talk too much about the story, because there’s beauty in the script itself, but also in how such a simple mechanic, elegantly deployed, can elicit empathy and regret. Be careful: This game can be both exciting and terrifying. It will be over in a few days. The World Before Your EyesThe blinking system is turned on, and I have to close my eyes for awhile. These were essential breaks when my eyes couldn’t be seen through my own tears.