Voices of the Forgotten; Arcade Distillery; Windows/PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox
Combining cartoon graphics and documentary evidence, this first-person adventure telling the story of a Jewish family in Nazi-occupied Paris delivers a vital historical message
Countless video games depict the second world war. Most guide players towards the battlefield, with its widescreen explosions and opportunities for sharpshooting heroics. Few head for the death camps. The video game medium is perhaps seen as too playful, too flippant, too lowbrow to approach the 20th century’s looming vortex of atrocity.
The Light in the Darkness, a new game available for free as an educational tool, follows a an émigré Polish Jewish family – a husband and wife and their son – living in France during the Nazi occupation. It does not make it as far as the gas chambers; the camera pulls away at the point at which the characters board the train. But there is no doubt as to where the tracks lead.
About Author
More Stories
UK scientist wins prize for invention that could help avert ‘phosphogeddon’
From the Beatles to biologics – how Liverpool became a life science hotspot
Wicked star Cynthia Erivo on fame, fear and fighting classism; Marina Hyde on why gen Z kids are not alright; and the mind/body revolution – podcast