Imagine a world in which you are living just as you are now. Going to work on the dark and dirty train, seeing the same faces you don't want to see, reading the same page in a book over and over again because your attention span is weakening, the rain drenching that new pants you like, your children staring at you like you're a foreigner, ending the night lying in your cold sheets wondering how your life got like this. You did everything a text book human being is required to do; schooling, university, get a good job, be wealthy at some point, get married, have children. Instead you have a dead end degree that you haven't use for twenty years and you work in a crappy desk job, bowing to your bosses every need. Your wife left you four years ago, and you see your kids once a year. Life is trash. You did everything you thought was right. But somehow, it just turned around and laughed at you.

Imagine a world in which you wish you lived in. Animals live in union with magical creatures. People live freely, nakedly, and the land is their work. They watch over our world, care for us, and make sure our world is in perfect balance. But something went wrong in their world, and its effecting yours. But only you can fix this. You don't know this yet.

One day, you're taking the train, as always, but everything just seems to stop. No one is talking anymore and you can't feel the rails beneath the train anymore. No one is moving, but you. You look around puzzled for a moment, before getting to your feet and wondering around.

"Hello?" You call out a few times. No one moves, or responds. At this point you think you're going crazy; you wouldn't be surprised if you were.

As you're walking the aisles, gazing upon the people in their frozen states, you notice something moving finally. A hand, small and pale, was reaching straight through the glass as if it was made of water. You hear a child's giggle, before you head a woman's voice say "Oh god, Lacy, what have you done."

You jog up to the window and peer out of it. Nothing, just the wall of a tunnel. You rest your hand upon the glass, and another hand seemingly appears from thin air, and rests on the other side, mimicking you. You press down and instead of feeling pressure, your hands goes straight through the glass. You can't breathe. What is happening?

Another force pushes your hand back through, so this time you pop your head through. Oh my goodness. A train, almost mirrors the one you're on, but its full of greenery and the little girl of whom your hand touch was dressed in a bears skin. The woman's voice was paired with a lady wearing a rabbit mask, cradling a...oh my god. You pull you head back through. Was that a wolf? But he seemed to be bathed in a galaxy. His fur was dressed like the milky way.

As you recompose yourself, the lady with the bunny mask pops her head through.

"Oh my god. Wait, you're the one they were talking about!" She looks around the train and sees everyone frozen.

"You're world won't stop moving again unless you come to ours and fix the time." She breathes, grabbing at my collar. I'm hesitant at first, but maybe this is the release I was looking for? She looks at me with wide, doe-like eyes.

"Please. Come through. We were told if someone from your side could see us that you were the one."

I breathed heavily and looked around my train. I hated this place, why was I hesitating? The other world or whatever it was could be the thing I was hopelessly searching for. The thing that my brain told me I would never find, the thing that I never deserved.

"What do I need to do...over there?"

"We have been have problems with our time. The sun sets at the strangest of times, or doesn't come up at all. Everyone has been getting sick. People are dying. Something is plaguing us here and we don't know what to do. Our King, he told us someone foreign would suddenly be able to see us, since we watch over your world, but none of you see us doing so. We are your keepers. We make your world balanced. And then Lacy was watching you, like she doesn't every morning, she noticed you had stopped your time. We need you. Plea-"

Just as she was talking I dropped my bag on the floor, took off of suit jacket. You began to clamber through this watery portal to another life or another world either temporarily, but you was hoping permanently.

As you step through, all of the magical and colourful beings sitting on the other side gazed at you; some looked happy and some looked scared. And then they cheer. They all ran up to you and embraced you. They were speaking of how you are their savior and that finally they will be rescued. You finally feel needed. You feel at home. You feel a hand tug on your pants. Looking down, you see Lacy's little face staring up at you.

"Welcome home."

'Conundrum' is an intense story game. I would us the term 'game' extremely loosely as its gameplay could be compared to 'Until Dawn', 'Beyond: Two Souls' and 'The Walking Dead (Telltale)'. Some would consider it as a playable or interactive movie. It is a beautiful story of adventure and escaping a repetitive life to save another's. With an art style reminiscent to 'Until Dawn' mixed with 'My Neighbor Totoro', the dark, depressing world juxtaposed with this colourful land will trigger emotions in most players. With your help, you can reverse the virus inside of the opposite world. Inherit magical abilities from mages, travel, protect and learn. This game is sure to woo story lovers and art admirers.

image source: http://blog.tattoodo.com/2015/08/draw-like-one-french-girls-chiara-bautista/