Once again, in order to help you stave off  the holiday rush of video game releases — if even for a single day — we are going to introduce you to a game that won’t cost you a dime. Temptation is thick after all — Wal-Mart just dropped prices on a number of recently released AAA titles — and we want you to be able to save a little coin and play a unique title called Spectre.

Now before we get into the whole game, description, and why you should play it spiel, you have to know that Spectre isn’t a traditional game. It’s definitely interesting and provides a dream-like scape to explore, but beyond that it’s really more of a narrative story than an actual game. So if you absolutely hate those types of things then maybe Spectre isn’t for you, but I do urge you to at least try it out. After all, you can’t beat free…

What makes Spectre so interesting of a game is its unique story telling. You see, it doesn’t have a traditional story line with a beginning, middle, and end… it’s more abstract than that. The website explains it best:

Spectre is a recombinant narrative platformer, a game that tells the story of an individual’s life. The landscape before you is not a physical world, but 73 years’ worth of Joseph’s memory: moments of joy and fear, light and darkness. As you navigate through his specific recollections, similarly themed events will glow bright. If you succeed in these moments of play and follow a glowing path, you will find a theme uniting his experience, and uncover a little more of his fading memory. If not, your nightly story will end in confusion.

As you travel throughout this “world”, as the description states, you’ll find these orbs that glow from black to gold and everything in between. Each orb recalls a memory.  On your first play through your first “story telling” will probably end in confusion with you not knowing at all what this game is about or what you were even told. However, if you continue to go back and replay the game you can begin to piece together story-archs that unite a common theme.

Like I said above, the game itself is a bit of a non-game, but the story telling is so unique that it’s almost a shame not to at least experience the title. While it may not be the “free play” to really help stave off those big-budget titles, it’s definitely a game that will make you think… so long as you give it a chance.

[download via SpectreGame]