Pleinair Online: a week with a game that told me to slow down

I went into Pleinair Online expecting to bounce off it. Online adventure games usually mean crowded hubs, chat spam, and a to-do list disguised as fun. This one did none of that, and it took me a couple of days to trust that the quiet was on purpose.

The controls are the first thing that impressed me. Tap to walk, hold to jog, swipe to swing the camera. On my phone it felt intuitive within the first location, and I never once fumbled while trying to look at something. That sounds small, but so many mobile adventures get it wrong.

The heart of the game is sketching scenes and wandering. You fill a sketchbook by finding good vantage points, and other players drift through the same spaces doing the same thing. I ended up quietly following a stranger up a hillside for ten minutes, and neither of us said a word. It was oddly lovely.

If you want objectives ticking every minute, this is not your game. But if you want something to unwind with, Pleinair Online is a rare kind of calm. My advice: play it with headphones and let yourself get lost on purpose.