Carto encourages players to look at the world in new ways

If this year has taught me anything, it’s that we can’t control what happens in life. We can often, however, influence outcomes by carefully rearranging the landscape of our attitudes and decisions. Doing so, we find paths, make connections, and build relationships.

Carto is a game that explores these ideas through a map-making metaphor. You play as Carto, a girl struggling to reunite with her grandmother after a terrible storm sends you tumbling out of the family airship to the world below.

Finding paths

Early on in the game, you’ll spend your time collecting lost pieces of the magic map that controls the layout of the world.

As you collect pieces, you can flip into a map view and begin to place tiles, moving and rotating them to assemble the world. Before long, you begin encountering the game’s many quirky characters and finding opportunities to help them using your ability.

They, in turn, propel you closer and closer to your grandmother as you make friends, visit new lands, and discover more about who you are and what your role is in this strange world.

Hers is the gift of perspective; she is able to help those around her not because she can change the details of their lives, but because she can help them reframe things, see them from a different point of view.

Building relationships

On the first island, you encounter a society with an unusual custom: at age 15, some of their children are sent away from the island — never to return.

This is the first of many odd rituals and cultures that Carto encounters on her journey. I appreciated how each situation was approached with curiosity, not judgment. The simple fact of having to literally zoom out to a map view is a reminder to pause, observe, and reflect before reacting.

Carto isn’t eager to change people to suit her, nor is she trying to insert herself into every moment.

While Carto has the power to manipulate a magical map, she is not herself magical. Hers is the gift of perspective; she is able to help those around her not because she can change the details of their lives, but because she can help them reframe things, see them from a different point of view. She reminds us to focus on the forest, not the trees.

Making connections

Though none of the lands you visit act as a central hub, you do return fairly frequently to a small stretch of land with a mysterious library. Among other things, this library contains the story of your life.

Each time you visit, more of the story is written, like an evolving record, but it can only ever show you what has already happened—it is a journal, not an oracle. Even with her powers, Carto cannot re-arrange time. She cannot know how her friendships will develop, or whether she’ll successfully reunite with her grandmother.

The book is just another reminder to reflect and appreciate where we’ve been before taking the next step toward where we’re going.

Play carto

Maybe it was just a matter of good timing, but Carto brought a disproportionate amount of joy to my life over the course of the three or four evenings it took for my wife and I to play through it together.

It’s engaging, not addictive. Sweet, not saccharine.

With whiffs of The Legend of Zelda in the sense of humour, a charismatic papery art direction, and a perfectly understated musical score, Carto is simply charming — a balm for the tired gamer’s soul.

If you’re looking for something light-hearted, brief, and beautiful with which to pass the time this winter, consider Carto.