People consider The Beginner's Guide seems to be  a baffling game with a mystifying story focusing on one person.  As you are taken on a journey through the many connected video games, you are experiencing the thoughts and creativity of the developer.  In the game, a man named Coda designs video games;  the narrator explains the challenges Coda has been facing overtime while developing his creations.  This game made me feel a mixture of confusion, anger, and sadness toward the end of it from the dumb choices the narrator had made and also the confusing decisions Coda thought were best for him.

At the start of the game, you are thrown into a simple indie game that looks quite peaceful and simple enough to play.  As you are taken to these different scenes, the narrator tells how Coda felt when he created these, indicating that Coda connects these games through one object.  A lamppost.  This single lamppost symbolizes ‘destination’ and usually sits out in the open, shining brightly throughout dark atmosphere.  In every important scene, there is a lamppost and is usually where you are supposed to go in order to complete the task and travel to the next challenge.  The games are sometimes filled with quick and easy puzzles and other times are just simple with a small trip around the closed space.
Surprisingly, this game took a sharp turn for the dark and depressing.  As you progress around the worlds, the narrator explains to the player that Coda often times showed how sad and lonely he was through the effort of his games.  This is shown from the closed off spaces in things and the use of prisons in Coda’s games.  At times, when you are playing, you come across beings with the bodies of humans but with boxes as heads with words that explained what that being was doing.  These beings would talk to the player, asking a few questions and the player is given a few options that they can respond with.  The narrator, who is with you the whole time, says that Coda did not like being around people and would talk to himself in a sense of loneliness.  By the time I got to the classroom scene, I had a full conclusion of what was going on in Coda’s mind.  He had depression.

I didn’t quite understand when the other games came up, but it all came together in little pieces when the classroom scene came up and the teacher was pointing out how to be perfect.  As a person who has suffered from depression, I automatically knew what was going through Coda’s mind.  He was facing big challenges of liking and appreciating himself for the games he made.  Coda had never shown anyone else his games except for the narrator and the narrator told the player that he liked to show the games to other people.  In my opinion, I thought that this was a dumb idea to show anyone someone else's games to others- or anything for that matter.  Coda showed the games to the narrator because he trusted him enough to just show him the games, not others.

The narrator seems to have been trying to ‘fix’ Coda’s problem and tries to help him by trying to ease Coda out of his protective shell.  Questions came into my mind as to why the narrator wanted to fix Coda so badly and why he did so much in order to help him.  But as the game progressed those questions were answered only to be replaced by more complex questions that filled my mind.  In one scene, Coda seems to be a machine and the player is angry at him for some reason that is not quite fully explained by the dialogue nor the narrator.  The player goes out to a large group of press and gives a loud but short speech telling the people that they should fight back and now is the time to erase the creator by destroying his creations.  By this time you are given a gun which, when you shoot, you are erasing the walls around you that represent the game.  In other words, Coda felt as if this was best for him; that his creations meant nothing and would only anger others if they were ever to be spread. 

By the end of the game, Coda’s mind seems to be in a frenzy along with the narrator who now explains that Coda’s games were what was reassuring to him.  The narrator showed these games to others thinking that this will help Coda not feel so alone and that he was actually the one who had been placing the lampposts around the games.  But what confused me so was that he seemed so much like Coda, that for a second I believed that the narrator could have been Coda all along.  But this made no sense because of how much he did for Coda, and Coda seemed like the type to not want to be helped by anyone.  As the game ends with the narrator leaving us on our own, telling us that it was his fault Coda stopped making games and that he had to go apologize to him, the player is left to go explore the shortage of the game on their own.  You are shown a large mage that seems to cover the entire world which is questionable as to what it means.  And then…….the game ends, taking you back to the title screen.

I am very confused about this game and honestly would give it 3 and a half stars. It was a nice game to play for 2 hours, but at the end, I was left baffled and sad, wondering whatever happened to Cody and the narrator at the end.  But I have a feeling that the creator of this game intended for the player to not fully understand the meaning of the game.  It was just supposed to be a creative but thoughtful game about someone’s life.  I recommend that if you would like to buy this game for $7.99, that you have a box of tissues next to you as you play.  It might get a bit gloomy and sorrowful, especially for those who knows about anxiety and depression.