What’s this thing in my Steam library, v2: Emily is Away Too
The week brings the second edition of my new semi-regular column, “What’s this thing in my Steam Library?”. As a regular Humble Bundle consumer, as well as a subscriber to the monthly mystery bundle, I have amassed a giant collection of games in my Steam account, many of which I have never heard of. Rather than just letting things accumulate with no intention of ever playing the majority of my list, I figured that occasionally, I would randomly pick an unfamiliar title and take if for a spin. So, this weekend, I put my hand over my eyes and threw a dart at my monitor. I ended up playing….
Emily is Away Too
Emily is Away Too, developed by Kyle Seeley, is a sequel to 2015’s Emily is Away. I think that it is fair to say that without my “What’s this thing” column, I would have never, ever played this game, or even noticed that it was in my library. That said, I found Emily is Away Too to be absolutely worth the time to play.
Emily is Away Too is played in its entirety in a chatting simulator. The main interface is a pixel art representation of MSN or AOL chat applications, circa the mid-2000’s. The player spends their time chatting with two characters, Emily and Evelyn, in several conversations that play out throughout their senior year in high school. This game absolutely nails internet culture from this period, and while I was a teenager much earlier than 2006 (my best guess as to when this game is set), there are many themes and universal teenage experiences represented in this game that rang true to me.
Several things stood out to me in the two to three hours it took me to play through the five-chapter story. The characters, who are represented only through the messages the player receives from them, are recognizable and well-drawn. After a few minutes, it was easy to have a feel for their distinct personalities and preferences, and tailor my responses appropriately. The life experiences the two teen girls relay to the player are familiar, and I started to get the distinct feeling that I was a creepy intruder who was stalking young people online. I know that this feeling is not the intent of the game, but it is a testament to how realistic the interaction with the characters is. It did not help that my wife kept swooping through the room making “Chris Hanson” jokes while I was trying to play.
The 2006 setting is realized in extremely clever ways. The game has a great solution for bringing real world music into the game world without paying licensing fees. I won’t spoil the fun, but I was impressed with the simple, yet brilliant, solution. The game references tons of great memes from the time that I had forgotten, and a couple that I somehow missed back in the day (that Kirby/Snoop Dogg remix is dope). Each of the five chapters starts with the player setting up their online profile, and don’t be surprised when the punk-rock loving Evelyn starts bashing on your choice to include a Chamillionaire quote. Most surprisingly, I saw my teenage son’s real-life Steam name pop up on my in-game contact list, complete with a custom profile. He later revealed that he had already played Emily is Away Too, which made me wonder if the profile I saw for him had been carried over from his playthrough. Just a little touch, but neat.
Emily is Away Too does a great job of keeping the player engaged in the conversation with both characters. The results change depending on what choices are made by the player, and eventually, players are funneled into choosing either Emily or Evelyn for a deeper friendship and possible romance. This is attained by slowly tightening the screws on the player during simultaneous intense conversations with both characters, which gets pretty intense in the moment. I found myself struggling to keep up with both characters as they fell into crisis and rapid-fired messages at me, demanding responses. The simulation is realistic, and I was a little sad that I had to disappoint one or the other character. Playing both sides seemed to be a bad plan, though, because these characters are not at all shy about calling out the player on perceived slights.
In the end, I was shocked at how entertaining this experience was. There might be tons of this sort of stuff on Steam, but I would have never given any of it a shot if not for this column. If this happens to be in your library, and you feel like revisiting the teenage world of keggers and fake IDs, you could do far worse than firing up Emily is Away Too. And if you don’t have this game, it is currently on sale on Steam for $3.50, which is extremely reasonable for such an elaborate simulation.
And for the record for anyone who is curious, I ended up dating Evelyn. We went to prom, had a great time, then crashed Jackie’s party. We decided to keep dating after High School, even though we are heading to different colleges. We feel that our relationship is strong enough to handle the distance. Emily and I were mad at each other for a while, but we made up, and remain close friends. So, you know, everyone is swell.
