The first two games saw players split up inside Castle Rock – a mysterious medieval castle in the wastes of Antarctica. You might occasionally see the other player from a balcony or on the other side of bars, but often your only direct interaction would be speaking via walkie-talkie. In We Were Here Together , things have changed a little, so much so, that you start out playing alongside your partner in the same areas. This means you can explore side by side if you like. We’ll give you a hint though… you’ll definitely need to split up in order to solve the puzzles! Still, it’s a more cozy introduction than you got in previous We Were Here games – and you know something else which is more cozy? The base camp where you start your adventure!
The expedition base camp is a huge contrast to the sinister castle beginning of the earlier We Were Here games. In We Were Here Together the idea was to expand the world, and let players explore beyond the halls of Castle Rock. It’s this warm, well lit space which opens out to a pretty Antarctic scene with a seafront view. The goal with this latest instalment is to give players the sense of going on a journey as the atmosphere changes the closer they get to Castle Rock – there’s still beauty in the icy, snowy outdoor scenes, but things get darker and more threatening as the explorers progress. For the people who will be making their third visit to Castle Rock, don’t be complacent – expect the unexpected…
The developers have introduced new areas into Castle Rock itself as well. For instance, the new monastery greenhouses have a very different aesthetic to the castle areas players have visited in previous games. The plants and large windows make the spaces feel more alive and less constricting, but this probably doesn’t prevent some underlying sense of dread. Castle Rock is not a welcoming place, after all… and the other people you might meet inside don’t want to be there any more than you do. You’ll discover their reasons via another new We Were Here Together feature: cutscenes!
Cutscenes have been introduced into the game to give another way of sharing even more story with the games players. The addition of cutscenes doesn’t mean that We Were Here Together is abandoning the environmental storytelling and atmosphere of earlier games! While the cutscenes help establish motivations for characters and focus the plot, perceptive players will learn a lot about the world of We Were Here as they look around.