Mediterranea Inferno takes you on a beautiful hallucinogenic anxiety holiday

But you know. In a good way. My waking hours are, currently, beset by stress and anxiety from a number of different directions, and I've only had time to play about about an hour of Mediterranea Inferno so far. It's quite a short game, though, and I'm sort of transfixed. It's about three men in their early 20s who, pre-pandemic, were the toast of their party scene in Milan, and after a couple of years apart enforced by a lockdown they're reuniting for a summer mini-break. Having blazed through my early 20s I no longer really remember that unique, potent mix of feeling simultaneously fragile and invincible, but it's captured in this almost occult, yet hyper-real visual novel.

I may be playing on a Steam Deck on a rainy day, but the bold colour contrasts and the desperate enthusiasm of the dialogue really get over the feeling of a too-hot summer, of trying to force fun and recapture a friendship when you all want different things. The most intense segments of Mediterranea Inferno are the Mirages, visions that merge past and present and metaphor, giving explicit form to each character's wants and anxieties. It's unreal and yet a distillation of reality. It's quite an intense ride so far, but it's a good one.

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