‘For Each Our Roads of Winter’ is like Myst, but photographic and hauntingly beautiful

Not a lot is known about the haunting, mysterious, and handsomely titled For Each Our Roads of Winter, but we’ve seen enough for our jaws to hang open and a little spittle to form in the pockets of our lips. It is without question a gorgeous and vividly photographic first-person adventure game. That much is sure. The ultra-real depictions of rope bridges over precipices and ocean rendered in high-contrast black-and-white are to die for, somehow clearer and more accurate than if you were standing before these scenes in real-life. 

The creator Orihaus, who is using the power of the hot and almighty Unreal Engine 4, says in a post that he is approaching this project as a new way to explore the upcoming wave of insanely “‘photoreal’ visuals.” By that, he means that once graphics approach a certain threshold of realness, new aesthetic standards are placed on a work, because it becomes painfully obvious when a manmade structure or geological formation is un-lifelike. “What salinity would this water have to have to create these basalt columns? Would that kill the moss near the waterline or feed it?” he explains. 

The game is coming for PC, Mac and Linux, and sounds fascinating, taking influence from the computer game Myst, French architect Étienne-Louis Boullée, and Borges. 

Oh yeah, and it has Oculus Rift support. 

You can find many more beautiful screenshots here