If you have been playing video games for years and think you know all the tricks developers pull to fool gamers, it's easy to assume a cynical stance on Before Your Eyes. The game retells the protagonist's life after his death and the main mechanic involves the game skipping ahead through scenes when you blink. Because of this, you might just think it's going to shower you with tons of sentimental or tragic yet relatable scenes.
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However, Before Your Eyes throws through some unexpected curves that pack a huge emotional punch and fully subvert your expectations. If you think you know what the game is about, we can almost guarantee that you don't know the other half of the story.
8 Rejection From Music School
A major theme of the game is about living up to expectations. The protagonist's mother never felt like her dad was proud of her and now tries to live out her aspirations of becoming a successful composer through her child.
You practice hard and go to the audition, but even if you ace it, you are rejected from the academy. This is disappointing for you at this moment, but at least you soon discover a new medium to express yourself; drawing and painting.
7 Your Cat Goes Missing
A supporting character in Before Your Eyes is a cat who makes your house her home. Your mother is allergic to cats and not enthusiastic about keeping the feline, but she acquiesces.
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During one scene, the cat goes missing and you and your parents look for it. This will resonate with anyone who ever had a pet who ran away. Even if they eventually come back as the cat in the game does, the feeling of dread about a beloved animal running away to an unknown fate never leaves.
6 Your Mother Dies
If life works out the way it should, your parents will die before you do. It can still be traumatic even if it happens well into your adulthood, regardless of your relationship with them.
In Before Your Eyes, it devastates you when your mother passes away to the point of you not being able to paint. Your father is also clearly emotionally wrecked by it. It leads to some positivity once you recover and make art to honor her memory, which in turn leads to a renewed appreciation of her compositions.
5 The Start Of The Plot Twist
At about two-thirds of the way through the story, the Ferryman guiding you through the afterlife warns you that something is not right. He then insists on retelling the story of your life again but encourages you to tell the truth.
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This reveals the shocking truth the player character hid on the first recollection. An illness that was only passively mentioned turned out to be more serious than it seemed before. You start to spend a lot more time confined to your bedroom and have to take medicine to relieve the pain. This is sad enough on its own but it leads to more heartache soon after.
4 The Cats Being Eaten By Coyotes
Your cat has kittens but the scene is not followed up on for a while. Once you go through your memories again in the latter portions of the story you recall a scene in your life where you learn about the kittens' fates. One night you look through your window and see Coyotes eating the young cats.
This isn't just meant to be exploitative, however. It fits into the game's themes of mortality and living life to the fullest. Just like those kittens who died well before their time, the protagonist's illness is making him feel like he won't have a future and won't make his parents proud of him.
3 Ben's Self-Loathing
Your character does not speak but he always seems positive, hardworking, and outgoing. Not every kid can put in the time and work to become a competent piano player, after all.
This all goes away when he is sick, however, and seeing these two sides of the main character in such a short span of time shows the emotional toll an illness can take on someone. His mom gives him a typewriter to continue being creative, and one story he writes is the gameplay you experienced earlier, but other times he describes himself as a loser who never accomplished anything.
2 Playing The Piano While He Is Ill
In addition to Benjamin's own self-loathing, it is also devastating to see how his parents are reacting to seeing their child slowly die. The character's mother is especially depressed. One bitter-sweet moment comes when your father asks you to play your mother's piano piece again.
It calls back to an earlier moment in the game when you play it, only this time you have medical equipment around you. It makes her happy for a moment but also lends to the game's major message of realizing all the good you brought to your loved ones even if you did not accomplish all you set out to do.
1 Ben's Death
The last part of the game has your character actually passing away. You still experience this from the first-person perspective and you hear your father trying to console your mother as you drift away. Your mother does her best to make you feel better prior to this by letting you know that you brought so much joy into their life, but it does not make the actual moment of losing her child any easier.
Shortly after you tell your story to the divine being or Gatekeeper, and you are accepted into the areligious afterlife. It's extremely bitter-sweet and it's hard to imagine anybody playing this ending without a flood of tears flowing from their eyes.
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