You experience a strange sensation when playing The Deer God, one that makes you feel at home and puts you slightly on edge. Its visual presentation is charming and familiar, but underneath all that is a narrative that challenges the thinking player.

Developed by Blowfish Studios and Crescent Moon Games, The Deer God is indie gaming at its finest. No run-of-the-mill bombastic action sequences or dragged-out scenes here, and that’s a good thing. Instead, the creators take a more subtle and impactful approach. At the beginning of the story, you start out as a hunter in the woods looking for your next big kill. Things go wrong, however, and you end up dead. Suddenly, you find yourself looking back at a giant, alien-like deer head with glowing green eyes – the Deer God. He tells you that you’re going to be reborn as a fawn to see what it’s like to be hunted. Once reincarnated as a baby deer, you must outrun hunters and other predators in the outdoors; the hunter indeed becomes the hunted. This makes for a game that has plenty of social commentary and is possibly the first of its kind to focus specifically on the morals of hunting and its devastating implications.

What makes the theme of The Deer God easier to digest is its visual presentation ? it looks and plays just like an old Nintendo side-scroller. The graphics may seem archaic to some, but they harken back to a comfortable world of 8-bit surroundings. Running around as a fawn, you double jump and maneuver your way around enemies and obstacles, just as if you were Mario; in this case, going from a forest to a swamp to a desert and more.

You’ll be tasked with solving puzzles that unlock powers from Deer God statues, giving you a better chance of surviving the hunters and animal predators like pesky porcupines that are surprisingly quick. Figuring out just how to organize your new abilities is not clear enough, though, creating a confusing situation that ultimately leaves the player not bothering with them at all. And while the side-scrolling is welcome, the view is oftentimes so far away from your character that there are actual trees blocking your view. But if you find yourself struggling and repeatedly dying in the same spot, you’ll notice the area change when you’re rebirthed, removing obstacles to make it easier to navigate.

There is a definite strangeness to The Deer God that might make some uneasy while acting as a selling point for others. Besides the topics that are addressed, like death and reincarnation, the atmosphere of the game can be borderline creepy. Much of this has to do with the Stranger Things-like synth music that comes up from time to time and the bizarre environments, such as the desert, where walking skeletons lurk. It certainly isn’t like a horror survival game, but there is, without a doubt, some spooky vibes here.

So just exactly what is your ultimate goal in The Deer God? To brave the outdoors as punishment for your sins as a hunter, apparently. But it’s never made quite clear at the beginning what the end goal is or where you’re headed.

For more, visit crescentmoongames.com/wordpress/the-deer-god.

Jason Savio