Shun is a short indie game that depicts an abusive relationship whether it be between an individual and religious organization, a romantic partner, or the government. You emerge from a dark corridor that is covered in glowing warnings. Stay away from them, keep your distance, bring the package, and more.
As you leave the passage, you find a lot of people standing around and talking. Are they really people though? They’re completely white, and blank. None of them will acknowledge you, and they continue on with their conversations. You can tell the groups of people are usually talking about their relationships. Though some aren’t very specific.
The game was designed to be open to many different interpretations, so you can decide for yourself. The creators left a general description of what you should take from it though. You’ll definitely notice these themes while playing.
You are Shunned
‘The physical and emotional isolation of the victim from the people around them is a common method of abuse and control. The abuser becomes the only person the victim can trust. With this game, we wanted to explore that relationship of control, paranoia, and isolation, and test whether or not players would blindly obey the dogmas we push upon them, or question them.’
It’s an accurate description of abuse, but there’s still many questions that are tough to answer perfectly from playing the game. What’s in the box, and what’s the point of going to get it to bring it back?
Shun is a thought provoking and meaningful game about abuse. Although that was the main theme, I still liked walking around the small city and seeing what the characters had to say. There’s a lot of ideas to think about, such as all of the other characters being white. It’s like they don’t exist to you, you’re on the outside. They only exist in their world and they probably appear normally to each other. Developed by Noiseminded for the Retro Game Jam 2019, and won 1st prize.
If you liked Shun, you would probably like other games by Noiseminded like Nightslink!
