The Stillness of the Wind review – window on a solitary life among goats and chickens

The Stillness of the Wind puts you in charge of a tiny farm in a desert, where you can set about building an arable or dairy empire. Feed the chickens and goats, churn milk to make cheese, plant and tend various crops. But, as one day bleeds into the next, with only lengthening shadows to indicate the movement of time, it quickly becomes apparent that this a game not about economic production, but about Talma, the old woman who has been left to manage this small farm alone.

Talma moves slowly, hunched over, from one chore to the next. As she does so, you uncover, through notes and delivered letters, her memories of the once vibrant farm and the relatives who used to live there with her, now either dead or living in a distant city. But Talma challenges assumptions about her frailty or neediness. She nobly carries on with her daily life without bitterness. She seems largely unaffected by the ups and downs of your efforts to make the farm prosper, whistling as she milks or laughing as she makes patterns in the ground with a stick.

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Set against the empowerment fantasy that games often offer, The Stillness of the Wind is frustrating. I spent days saving up eggs to trade for a magic carpet, only to find it was just a rug that smelled of incense. But this pacing is intentional. Wasting time with busy work compounds the air of solitude depicted by the game’s dusty setting, painted visuals and delicate piano accompaniment.

Persevering with this intentional waste of time opens a window on to the life of an elderly empty-nester such as Talma. Walking this slow, five-hour journey made me consider what I might do when my children have gone, or whether I should visit my own mother more often.

The Stillness of the Wind is not quite as elegant as it could be; the writing is heavy handed and confusing dream sequences don’t contribute much to its atmosphere of contemplative loneliness. Yet this unusual game encourages thinking about old age in a unique and provocative way.