Dissecting Love is a narrative driven game that takes you through the relationship of two queer individuals, who are navigating their own issues while literally having an autopsy. It’s a strange look into a story, with so many little puzzles for you to solve while reading bits of conversation of two people struggling to communicate.
When in relationships, you often feel intertwined with the other person as your lives become dependent, and you become a part of one another. To show this visually, you will be cutting apart two people who are intertwined, having an autopsy of sorts, as you try to solve their issues and understand where each person is coming from. The conversation, as you cut open each other, is captivating, discussing queer issues like being in straight-seeming relationships and having family members reject individuals due to their identity, but there are also conversations on not caring enough about one another and not respecting individuals.
When it comes to this conversation in Dissecting Love, I felt frustrated. There is very clearly an individual who is not trying to make this relationship work, and instead feels very concerned with only their own feelings. Even in this conversation where both people are trying to communicate, there is one that is just trying to fight their way out of whatever is going on. Pairing that with the puzzles, the frustration set in, as I tried to figure out what that person’s end goal was and started siding with the other person.
The autopsy itself has you grabbing tools from a tray of tools then figuring out how to use them to pull apart these two people. It can be pulling, cutting, and fixing holes that have been caused, creating their own individual personalities. It’s not super gore-y or anything, but you do understand what parts of the body you are cutting away and unlinking, even as more windows appear on top of each other, giving you more complex areas to get untangled. The entire thing feels so well matched to the conversation going on, as it’s clear these two people won’t be entangled any further.
I was captivated by Dissecting Love, and was frustrated when the demo came to an end and there was so much left to explore. It’s an interesting look into two people’s relationships.
You can currently play a demo of the game on the developer’s website and wishlist the game on Steam.
