Don't Look Back

Thanks to Autostraddle for pointing to this game in their latest post. “Don't Look Back” follows Orpheus's journey into the Underworld after the death of Eurydice. In the myth, Orpheus makes his way to the Spartan Gates and sings his wishes to Persephone and Hades:

Great god and goddess, appointed to govern in Hades,
into which every living creature relapses,
if it is rightful for me, if I am permitted
to shun all evasions, speaking the truth to you plainly,
know that I have not come down here to your kingdom
just for the view, or to chain up the three-headed Cerberus,
that monstrous child of Medusa, bristling with serpents;
my wife is the cause of my journey: she stepped on an adder
whose venom cut her life short as it spread through her body.
I won't deny that I wished to—and tried to—endure it,
but Love overcame me. Above, this god is quite famous;
whether he has the same status down here, I'm not certain,
but even so, I would think him to be as well known,
for unless that tale of long-ago rape was invented,
the selfsame deity joined the pair of you, also!
If that's the case, then I, by all of these frightening places,
by mighty Chaos and by this realm of the silent, I beg you
to weave once again Eurydice's fate, done too swiftly.

Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book X, ln. 26 - 43.

The King and Queen of the Dead are moved. The Furies weep. Orpheus receives Eurydice on one condition: he cannot look back at her until they have safely reached the world of the living.


“Don't Look Back” covers Orpheus's journey to the Underworld from Eurydice's grave. On the way, you fight hooded snakes and tentacled monsters that drop down from ceilings. There are also flying things (bats?) that will kill you and make you redo a scene. It looks fairly awesome, and as my gaming skills are somewhat below geek standard, someone else should get to the end so I can find out whether it ends exactly like the myth or not. I'm hoping that any scene between Orpheus and the rulers of the Underworld involves keypad-based Lute Hero.

The game was developed by Terry Cavanagh and is available through Kongregate.