Rating
Where the Heart Leads
On the kind of stormy night that can change a person's destiny, an enormous sinkhole opens in the middle of Whit Anderson's farm. Braving the rumbling thunder and the driving rain, Casey - their curious Golden Retriever - ventures too close to the gaping maw and tumbles in. Desperate to save her, Whit descends into the darkness, and emerges in a re...
Details
- Released
- July 12, 2021
- Developer
- Armature Studio
- Publisher
- Armature Studio
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Where the Heart Leads Reviews
Professional reviews from gaming critics
Sometimes things don’t work out the way we want them to. In all of its glorious indifference, the universe can seem to lie in wait for opportunities to twist our meandering paths forward in unexpected directions. Where the Heart Leads is gentle and empathetic in its lesson that adulthood isn’t a place where one arrives…While we all may strive not to live in the past, we all have moments we wish we could do-over. That’s what makes the gift of this game all the more special: it offers an invitation to try again, with the tender reminder that life will never be perfect.
When you think of a video game, a piece of art that makes you think about your life and what it means to be alive doesn’t instantly come to mind. But maybe it should. Read our review to learn more about Where the Heart Leads.
Where the Heart Leads does well for what it seemingly aims to do. It’s the surreal narrative journey of a family through years of happiness and sadness with the connective tissue of a disastrous event tying it down to the present. Putting the puzzle pieces of memory, decision, and consequence together as you go takes this game in a number of directions. Not every direction is riveting and there are some definite lulls, but there are also deeply difficult moments to choose between with consequences for the choices made and the paths untaken. If you’re looking for a chill and often lackadaisical...
Where the Heart Leads is a perfect water cooler game. It’s a narrative game all about making lots of difficult decisions, each of which carries long term consequences. By the end of my playthrough, every member of the Anderson family was tangibly affected by the choices I made for them. This means that, potentially, no two playthroughs are alike. Armature Studio have crafted a wonderful story full of loveable characters. Flawed, sad, angry, difficult, frustrating characters, but loveable no...
The power of decision-making is in your hands as you play through a man's life in Where the Heart Leads, a new surreal narrative game exclusive to PS4 (and also playable on PS5). What choices will you make, and where will they take you and Whit Anderson, as well as a host of other characters?
Where The Heart Leads is a unique game that chronicles a family's entire life together, spanning generations and decades. It's ambitious, albeit flawed, but certainly interesting.
With more attention to detail in the writing, Where the Heart Leads could have been something truly special. As it is, it’s an intriguing journey through a regular life. Some moments outstay their welcome and others could do with being refined, but on the whole, Whit’s journey is one that you’ll quickly become invested in. The decisions you make carry serious weight, and after spending a few hours with these characters, you’ll only want the best for them.
Where The Heart Leads is an interactive adventure made by the same team who brought us Batman Arkham Origins Blackgate and Dead Star. This isn’t a game about crime fighting heroes or epic space battles though. Instead it’s a story about one man, Whit Anderson, and how the choices we make in life can have far-reaching impacts on those around us.
Where the Heart Leads is a fascinating and heartwarming narrative-driven story. That cannot be disputed, but what can is its pacing and rather lengthy run-time for a game that's designed to be replayed and experienced multiple times. What you're left with is a game hindered by its own lofty CYOA ambitions and desire to provide as much context -- both necessary and not -- to you about Whit's world. I'm glad I got to experience it for its intriguing portrayal of life, but it may not be a journey worth taking again.
Where the Heart Leads offers a supremely compelling and fascinating overall narrative, one that is filled with genuinely meaningful choices – surely a rarity in video games? Unfortunately, its tall tale is also bogged down with numerous presentation issues that result in dull characterisation. Overall an uneven experience that’s both brilliant and boring – sometimes at the same time.
Armature is most recently, and probably best, known for their Xbox entry, ReCore. For as flawed as it is, it was an enjoyable title, and that verdict is shared among a lot of members of the WTMG staff. It is why my interest was piqued when I saw the trailer for their newest title, Where the Heart Leads. It is also why I was so completely let down after “playing” it.
All in all, I wish I could say that playing Where the Heart Leads was fun — I was really rooting for it, and hoping it would rise to the occasion. But, regardless of how long I held out, playing this game turned out to be a pretty miserable experience, and one I would have given up about an hour in if I didn’t want to finish it for this review.