Welcome to Elk

A fascinating experiment in narrative techniques, even if there's some tonal whiplash along the way.

Welcome to Elk is a game that’s hard to quantify. Hell, it’s hard to even accurately describe. Somehow, it manages to be moving, mystifying, upsetting, intriguing, stressful, confusing, enlightening, and probably a dozen other contradictory things. Welcome to Elk doesn’t provide satisfying answers or endings. There are few, if any, likable characters. You’ll experience more trauma than you probably want to in just a few, short hours. And at the end of it all, you’re left clutching at the sharp, jagged shards of other people’s emotions, wondering… what do I do now?

Frigg's experience feels genuine and grounded even during moments of whimsy. At the end of the day, the game's message is that sometimes a good story is just that: a good story. It really doesn't need to be anything more.

One of the subgenres of games that has been extremely well-represented on the Switch has been story-driven games, and these have come in all sorts of forms and share their narratives in a variety of ways...

As I sat there looking at the colorful rendering of Elk and my 100% completion save file, I wondered if my assumption was inherently American. I had these thoughts of, Give me my prize. Give me the thing again without having to work for it. Give me the chance to look at this again. I knew, looking at that menu screen, that that was not the point of Welcome to Elk. The point of Welcome to Elk is to experience a small world of stories and lives. And there’s no way to dip your toes in. Like the lovable alcoholic schoolteacher Sue, sometimes you have to just dive into those frigid waters and swim to shore.

I did enjoy playing Welcome to Elk and I’m glad I made it through the whole game. By the end I really felt for the main characters and their stories depicted, even more so for the real life people who tell the stories. The ending was a nice warm way to round out the whole experience.

Welcome To Elk is a very unique game to play. I have not played anything else quite like it and there is no easy way of describing it. Take the time to visit, spend some time with the people living there and the experience will stay with you long after you have left.

Welcome to Elk is an interesting biographical game about how stories help shape communities. It features some interesting mini-games and a good cast of characters, but the stories feel a little too personal and at times you feel like an intruder.

Welcome to Elk delivers exactly what it proposes: to tell some shocking real stories within a fictional universe that unites them. For some, it can become a tedious experience, broken by short and fun minigames. Still, the game shows to be developed with great care, in colorful and friendly illustrated arts. So, grab a drink and hear a little of what each inhabitant has to say.

On the cold little island of Elk we have people, and people always have stories. Listening to them and perhaps telling them ourselves in turn, is what has made so many continue to live for thousands of years. We will then know real stories, without morals or attachments, human stories, within a very particular narrative game and with a deep work within it.