Evenicle Review

fOx

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Aug 26, 2017
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Over the years, games have shifted heavily towards games as a service. Games are generally multiplayer titles that encourage the purchase of loot boxes or micro transactions, and try to maintain an active player base for months or years at a time. Even on the rare occasion where a AAA single player game gets made, it is usually sanitized for mass consumption. This leaves the AAA landscape a somewhat barren landscape for gamers desiring a serious, thoughtful, story driven experience aimed at adults. If you want such an experience, then you're most likely going to have to look into middle shelf games and the indie market, where you'll find smaller scale titles that are willing to discuss more serious subject matter.

One such game is a title called Evenicle. In evenicle, you play as a young man living in a theocratic society that worships a deity called The Goddess. The Goddess of Evenicle decrees that all followers of the church must practice abstinence until marriage, and, when married, must maintain a monogamous relationship with their spouse. Anyone who breaks this commandment is branded, and is, essentially, cursed to become a pariah in society. On the surface, this commandment is terribly inhumane. However, upon further analysis, the commandment only gets worse.

In ancient Hebrew society, women who were sexually assaulted were often times forced to marry their rapist. Even if they weren't, the woman often times had difficulty finding a willing marriage partner, since it was believed that her "value" had been spoiled. Even in later, medieval societies, it was not uncommon for victims of sexual abuse to be treated as outcasts in their societies. Sex workers often had to wear identifiers when walking through the streets. Women found guilty of adultery in puritan towns were forced to wear the iconic scarlet letter. These were humiliations that were not forced upon their male counterparts. Evenicle does not shy away from examining the ugly excesses of a theocratic patriarchal society. Women who are assaulted in evenicle are branded, and forced to become outcasts and outlaws. They are denied the ability to either marry, or find work, and are cast out of towns and communities.

There is an exception to this rule, however. Men who are part of the upper class are allowed to marry multiple women, in order to spread their "superior genes." The system of government is set up to support an upper class of white males, who enjoy greater wealth, privileges, and are allowed to keep multiple wives. They use religion as a justification for their excesses, claiming that they have a divine right to rule, while lower class people, minorities, and women, are relegated to lesser positions in society. Evenicle does an excellent job criticizing the evils of organized religion and sexism, while showing us the plight of women in our victim blaming culture.

Evenicle shows us the importance of giving women the right to bodily autonomy. It shows us, through its characters, the inherent difficulty of having to choose whether or not to have an abortion, or keep a child, that results from difficult circumstances. It shows us that, no matter what choice is made, that the choice itself is what matters, and it belongs to the woman alone. Evenicle teaches us that men have long enjoyed a position of immense privilege over women, and that while our society has made some improvements, we still have a long way to go. Victim blaming still exists. Attacks on a womans right to choose are more frequent then ever. Released in 2015, Evenicle could not be more topicle, and in a frightening way, prophetic. Though it is set in the past, Evenicle could, in a way, be a vision of our future. It has thus earned its place alongside other modern feminist classics, like a handmaids tale, as a rallying cry for womens rights.
 

Martintox

Mister Disorder
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Apr 3, 2020
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Very good review, this looks to be an interesting title. We've already had a lot of video games meant to shed insight on the stereotypes and double standards to which women can be subjected within society, but I have difficulty thinking of one that goes as far as to touch upon the topic of abortion. It is quite a bold decision to place such emphasis on that particular subject, thus I will have to give this a look.
 

fOx

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Aug 26, 2017
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Very good review, this looks to be an interesting title. We've already had a lot of video games meant to shed insight on the stereotypes and double standards to which women can be subjected, but I have difficulty thinking of one that goes as far as to touch upon the topic of abortion. It is quite a bold decision to place such emphasis on that particular subject, thus I will have to give this a look.
There are very, very few games willing to touch such a controversial topic. I know that there are a handful of free indie games that touch the subject, and I've heard arguments that OFF is an extended abortion metaphor, but Evenicle is thus far the most mainstream title to address the topic.

Obvious trigger warning for graphic content, but for those interested, it's available now on Steam.