Set during a broiling hot summer in Copenhagen, Stilstand focuses on a young woman living largely in isolation with nought but the odd concerned text from a friend and a strange shadow creature for company. She suffers from severe anxiety and self-doubt, struggles to communicate with anyone in her life, yet seems desperate for a genuine human connection, perhaps because the world around her appears to be at its end.
Niila Games' visual novel plays out through comic-style panels, with a series of simple mini-games and interactive moments breaking up the cyclical arc of hope, a difficult setback, and unkind self-reflection. We observe as she sits in her warped room, smoking and half-watching TV, occasionally checking for texts that she seldom replies to. Time and again, her shadowy friend tries and fails to lift her mood.
Stilstand is packed full of the precise fears of the moment, and even some that are yet to come. We stand by awkwardly as she experiences the initial terror of entering a crowded party after spending days – perhaps weeks – alone, as well as the anxiety of having to once again socialise on that overwhelming scale.
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