I have reviewed a lot of games on Steam in the past, and I thought I knew what I was getting into when it came to Tulpa. I was told that it was “a deep, dark, and gloomy, and more of a mental exercise or experience, a story-centric journey through the mind…well, sort of”.

This quote is directly from the email that I got with the information, and it intrigued me so much that I tried it out. I predicted a game with minimal graphics, lots of black, and weird music, and I was right. It was similar to the Elegy of a Dead World that I reviewed a while ago.

Like Elegy, there isn’t much of a story here. There is a character here named Olivia, and she has this Tulpa named Oliver. Now, I did a search for Tulpa in an attempt to find the website before I wrote this article, and Mr. Wikipedia has told me it is “a concept in mysticism of being or object which is created through sheer spiritual or mental discipline alone”.

The name is fitting, as in the game, you play Olivia, who has this Oliver ghost boy floating around. Olivia can pull and push actual objects, but Oliver can interact with certain objects telekinetically which will help Olivia move forward in a typical video game side-scroller style.

All in all, I liked playing this game, even though there doesn’t seem to be any storyline. I see Olivia move forward with Oliver in this surrealistic world, but I have no idea why. Maybe someone can make a movie about this and actually create the first video game based on a movie that is actually good.

Whatever the case, you can get Tulpa on steam for about $9.99. And I highly recommend that you do, as it is quite a trip. You can find out more information on it on the Tulpa game website.