As I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to really appreciate a game that gets to its point at a tight clip of ten hours or less. Oftentimes, games like this can take big swings, greater risks, despite their short length, and so the experience can oftentimes be as memorable, or more so, than games well outside its weight class.

I picked up the aptly-named Arctic Eggs as the cold was starting to set in. For whatever reason I find comfort in playing games depicting winter even as the real-life chill starts to effect my overall mood. Maybe it’s because it always seems _way _ colder in whatever I’m playing (see also: “The Long Dark").

You could probably take a stab at what the game is related to in some sense by the title - it takes place in a remote human settlement in the frozen wastes of Antarctica, in a vague, dystopian future. As nothing grows here, food comes from what can be brought in or cultivated indoors - specifically, chickens. Thus, the primary diet of everyone is eggs (as well as beer, cigarettes and tins of sardines). You play as someone who recently attempted to escape this place, and as punishment you are made the resident egg cooker.

The game itself picks up here, as you go from person-to-person to cook their eggs (and whatever else they throw in the skillet) to satisfy their hunger. You have to do this for enough people to eventually be granted an audience by someone known as the Saint of Six Stomachs, who may grant you the ability to leave.

It’s all very absurd and surreal, but like any good narrative as eclectic as this, beneath the goofy appearances is very real humanity. As you are fulfilling your quota of fed residents, they talk to you about their life and what they’ve got going on. It offers a deeper glimpse into an otherwise opaque world, and more often than not is a jolt of humor in an environment that’s made of blizzards and concrete.

Admittedly, I haven’t finished the game yet. I was afraid I’d finish it too soon as I played, which led to me falling off of it a quarter of the way through. Hopefully writing about Arctic Eggs compels me to pick back up on it so I can conclude my thoughts on it.