According to the Greek philosopher Pythagoras, our universe isn't just a collection of celestial bodies, but a song. Pythagoras and his followers assigned the sun, moon and planets a tone based on their orbits, generating a mathematical harmony latterly known as the “music of the spheres”. This harmony shapes every aspect of human existence, they argued, from our souls to our vital organs, but we're oblivious to it because we hear it from birth. For most of us, it's just background noise.
In JETT: The Far Shore, a video game from Quebec-based Superbrothers, that background noise is given tangible form. Players join a team of explorers searching a distant world for the source of a mysterious ‘hymnwave’, a heavenly broadcast that is the foundation of their religion and society. This hymnwave shapes a planet that consists of percussive flora and animals that are highly sensitive to sound. Your dropship acts as a kind of flying drumstick; the “pop” of its retrorockets bursting crystals and rousing larger bulbs into bloom, sending waves of wildflower rippling over the earth. With no weapons to defend yourself, a sense of rhythm is essential: excessive, offbeat popping may draw the wrath of flying predators.
At first glance, JETT looks like a simple exploration game – go here, scan or pick up this, listen to some dialogue. But it's better thought of as a musical exchange, an attempt to find harmony between habitat and invader – or if not to harmonise, then to explore the consequences of discord. Later on, the hymnwave becomes sinister, amplifying itself into blastwaves that must be boosted through with careful timing. Certain changes in the frequency also begin to affect the minds of your character and her companions, provoking vivid dreams of skull-faced shadows.