When it comes to the end of our time, it is no longer about what we can do, but about what we choose to leave behind. In Stones of Solace — a beautiful, contemplative game — you must make a ritual about the things you must leave behind.
Each day begins with you being given an idol. Some words then appear to explain the idol, and tell you a little bit about it, so that you have some sort of prompt for what you are about to make. The descriptions are short and simplistic, and they always leave plenty of room for interpretation. Some will, for example, state that they are cozy or happy. You’ll get to look around the idol as the screen rotates, showing you the clearing of grass that the statue is then stacked within.
Once you are ready, you can click on the idol and start placing objects into a sort of stone bowl type thing. Different idols have different objects which can be rotated and added in. These objects often reflect the environment; rocks, flowers, bits of coral, feathers. Whenever you are ready to move forward you can click again to see if the offering is good enough for the idol.
The aim of Stones of Solace is self reflection and contemplation, so that the player takes a moment to think about themselves and what they are doing. Most often, the statue is happy with the offering and moves on. Each day you get a different shrine to visit and make offers to, but in the demo that I got to play at EGX 2019 I played through quite a few at once. The graphics are brilliant and setting up my offering was a joyful and relaxing experience.
Stones of Solace can be found on Steam.
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