6.5
While That Dragon, Cancer isn't a completely successful experiment, I have to applaud it for doing something challenging and different. Perhaps the next time a game like this comes along, it will go even further. Oh and it's beautiful.
That Dragon, Cancer
Numinous Games · Jan 12, 2016
About
An immersive, narrative videogame that retells Joel Green’s 4-year fight against cancer through about two hours of poetic, imaginative gameplay that explores themes of faith, hope and love.
Trailers & screenshots
Scores by platform
Critic reviews
- 8.0The representation of a familly dealing with the protracted illness of a child is well done, but wasn't as interesting to me as the exploration of faith that was inextricably woven into it.
- 7.5We all inevitably lose everything. That Dragon, Cancer is a brave family’s journey through true loss and the search for relief. It’s not a guarantee that we’ll all be OK through thick and thin. The story is too personal for that kind of reassurance.
- 8.0Although not every part of That Dragon, Cancer works, it’s a crushingly intimate game that left me thankful for the people who are still in my life, and reflective on those who are not. I’m so grateful to the Greens for sharing their experience.
- It is so fitting that this is a game, not a movie. From the jilting scene transitions to selective interactions, the dioramic games within the game to the increased level of abstraction and perspective changes, the mode of storytelling works. But it mostly excels at being a lesson that as much as you can "game-ify" elements of life, you will be confronted with perma-death—real death.
- 9.5I cannot recommend this to everyone because of the sheer difficulty of the experience, but I nonetheless challenge anyone who has lost a loved one or faced great trouble in their life to take this journey, share in human togetherness with the Greens and their friends, and observe the beauty that blossomed from the life and death of Joel Green.
Related games
Rate this game
Drag or use arrow keys to rate
to rate this game.