There are now so many good new games to play, as well as lots of titles in my backlog, that I didn’t expect to be thinking about 2021 games. Kid A Mnesia Exhibition on the PS5.
But I recently sat down with a drink or two to play it, while stellar titles like Song of the Hollow Knight’s Silk sitting half-ignored on my Steam Deck.
And it’s a game, or rather a virtual experience, that I also recommend you try. Of course, that’s with the caveat that you’ll probably have to first be a Radiohead fan to get the most out of it.
Let’s look at some context before we go any further. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Radiohead were one of the biggest bands, delivering somewhat angsty lyrics wrapped in punchy guitar music that contrasted with the swaggering rock-and-roll of Oasis. But after their first three albums, Radiohead moved away from the alternative rock sound, perhaps best captured in the seminal OK Computer, to a more electronic, textured sound with a greater emphasis on abstract lyrics.
Released in April 2000, Kid A was considered a polarizing album for Radiohead; some embraced the creativity and weirdness, while others saw it as something alienating and perhaps a little pretentious. 2001’s Amnesiac, which used additional tracks originally created for Kid A, continued this new sound. Even as a fan of electronica and abstract sounds, I definitely find Kid A and Amnesiac to be the most difficult Radiohead albums to listen to; you’re more likely to enjoy listening to them as whole albums rather than picking out individual tracks.
But with that in mind, I think their quirkiness and creativity, with a pinch of perceived pretension, make these two albums a great foundation on which to build a game. And thanks to a partnership with Epic Games and a mass of album art and other visual assets that the band had around twenty years ago, a strange walking simulation game was born.
It’s what Kid A Mnesia Exhibition that’s all. You start in a dense wood, with trees rendered in a scraped and sketched artistic style, but then move into a bunker where the musical and visual experience comes into play.
Strange wonder
While there’s nothing to directly interact with in terms of button presses, you can dive into all sorts of paths through rooms and hallways that play particular Kid A and Amnesiac songs in creative ways.
For example, in one room you enter a space with a load of paper pages containing sketches and lyrics, accompanied by a modified version of the song In Limbo. As the song progresses, these pages explode in a whirlwind of paper, capturing for me the feeling of being a little lost or disoriented amidst a mass of ideas, concepts and thoughts.
A similar experience is offered in a large room with a big box in the middle, accompanied by the underlying bass and electronic tones taken from Packed Like Sardines In A Crushed Tin Box.
Around the box are small squares depicting a cartoon bear’s head with big teeth – a piece of art dreamed up by the band – which a player can stand on to extract other elements of the song, from lyrics to distorted guitar bits.
This is all rather strange, but somewhat reflects the claustrophobic feeling of a person trapped in a job, situation, or environment due to the societal pressures of uncaring modern life; at least according to my interpretation.
The entire game, which should probably only take about two hours, is full of moments like this, some of which really turn into something special.
That’s if you’re willing to embrace the abstract nature of this Radiohead stage and a whole host of strange visuals, which are as much on you to extract meaning from them as to simply absorb them as part of the ride.
By the end of the exhibition, I felt like I had had a really interesting, intriguing and a little weird experience with Kid A and Amnesiac, much fresher than just listening to the albums. And it’s definitely an experience that I encourage you to discover, especially since it’s free on PS5, PC and Mac.
I also think the power of the Unreal Engine opens the door to more mixing of games and music.
Obviously, music already has a huge place in the game, but if the Kid A Mnesia Exhibition Regardless, I think other bands and musicians have more opportunities than ever to bring their work to life in a virtual world. And I love seeing others follow in Radiohead’s footsteps… even if they don’t go to such weird places.
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