The Kid A Mnesia: Exhibition is not a video game, as players are told in no uncertain early on in the experience. The virtual museum and interactive music video collection from storied band Radiohead, available for free on PC and PlayStation 5, is controlled like a game, mostly through first person navigation. The band’s music is accompanied by dreamlike images, some of which are beautiful, while others are surreal and horrifying. Though the exhibit is not a game, recent “walking simulator” titles have blurred the line between video games and interactive art experiences. Thanks to its creativity and outstanding graphical presentation, Radiohead’s interactive exhibit delivers an impactful product that sets a new standard for creative horror games, as well as any future titles with surreal elements.
[Warning - minor spoilers for Kid A Mnesia: Exhibition follow.]
The “walking simulator” genre, as it is cheekily and colloquially known, often faces unwarranted criticisms. Auteur game developer Hideo Kojima distanced Death Stranding from walking simulators, citing it as a new style of game called “strand.” The walking simulator itself is a relatively new type of game, however. Early standout titles like Gone Home and The Stanley Parable helped define some expectations of this style of game. The genre typically focuses on first-person, usually linear exploration, possibly with a few small puzzles, with the story and the mood of the experience given priority. Subsequent games like Tacoma, Everyone’s Gone To The Rapture, and Dear Esther have helped cement the legitimacy of this style of game, one not based on challenge but on delivering a story in a unique way. Though it takes roughly an hour to “complete” the Kid A Mnesia: Exhibition, in of making it to the end credits, by the standards of the walking simulator genre, the exhibit is just a narrative away from being considered a video game.
Formative genre leaders like The Stanley Parable contain secrets players are discovering a decade after its release, and no doubt ardent Radiohead fans will scour Kid A Mnesia: Exhibition for secrets and Easter eggs. In its condensed playtime, Radiohead’s interactive product exhibits some of the most impressive imagery seen in games, showcasing both the power of the current-gen PS5 as well as top-tier PCs, but also what a combination of AAA budget and artistic freedom can produce. Where games like Agony have attempted to achieve an emotional reaction of fear through the brutality of its depiction of hell, Kid A Mnesia does so through disorientation, clever graphic design, and perfectly paired music from the band.
Even Non-Radiohead Fans Can Enjoy Kid A Mnesia's Unique Presentation
The exhibit’s sequences of horned devils lurking just at the periphery of the player’s vison, dancing circles of demons, as well as other more abstract terrors earn more of an emotional reaction than the jump scares of typical horror games, or the heavy metal-inspired hellscapes of DOOM, or Shadow Warrior 3's violence and gore. Kid A Mnesia could ease players into horror games, or non-gamers into gaming, but they will encounter few titles that approach the visual standards set by Radiohead’s interactive product.
The main distinction between an “experience” like Kid A Mnesia: Exhibition and a “game” primarily comes from the absence of a narrative. It offers a new way for fans to experience the band’s music akin to a music video that can be explored. The work also contains living exhibits of band ’ writing and artwork, as well as videos of live performances that can be viewed. Even for those who are not fans of the band’s music, the sheer visual splendor of the experience still makes it worthwhile. Despite its “non-game” status, there are puzzle elements required in order to see the entirety of what it has to offer. There are even small twists, despite the absence of a narrative, which mirror the ending of the indie hit Inside, when the perspective shifts to a 2D platformer-style interface, and the player discovers they have been “controlling” a horned devil figure the entire time.
From its leering papier-mâché giants with terrifying grins, to its deep space particle physics sequences that may remind gamers of Rez, to its room of lifelike manuscript pages that spin from stream of consciousness into a whirlpool of ideas, Kid A Mnesia delivers one memorable sequence after the next. It sets a high bar for future horror and surrealist games, one that hopefully game developers will aim for in future AAA titles.
