Life is a scary thing. We spend all our lives in fear of what will come next, what if something unexpected happens? Like what if your car breaks down and you need to pay a lot of money to get it repaired? What happens if you badly injure yourself and are unable to work? What if you fail an exam that could have a greater effect on your life?
What if you, or someone you know is raped?
This is the question Pregnancy poses to you and its more difficult to answer than you might think.
Its present day Hungary and Lilla is a normal 14 year old girl; or so everybody thinks. You see Lilla is a rape victim and has subsequently fallen pregnant from the attack. A family's worst nightmare, just got even worse.
You play as a disembodied voice within Lilla's head, a concious if you will. A voice that is there to guide her and help her with some of the important decisions she must make over the next few hours, who to tell about the pregnancy and whether to consider the ever controversial topic of abortion.
To call Pregnancy a game is kind of difficult, I mean yes, by all means it constitutes as a game due to its interactivity. But its more about raising awareness and to broaden views on the issue, that is why this review has no score. Not because I feel Pregnancy isn't a game, but because I feel it shouldn't be treated as one, that it is something more. An essential learning tool for adults and teenagers alike.
Pregnancy will always give you the ending you don't want, so whilst this makes you choices seem a little pointless, it does help open your eyes to the other side of the argument.
Abortion was a topic I covered extensively in my studies of Religion & Ethics during my A-Levels, but none of that ever changed my view that abortion is the best thing to do for young families who are potentially unable to raise a child, especially in the case of rape.
But Pregnancy allowed me to see a different side to this, thanks to giving me an ending where the baby is to be kept and born. It showed me a more human look at having a person growing inside you, that no matter the pain Lilla went though, she will love her child no matter what and she would rather see the birth through than to never have her child.
I cant say it changed my view on abortion, but I can say it changed my view on young families, allowing me to see a more human side behind why they may have had children so young.
Pregnancy only lasts around 20 minutes, but it is worth replaying with various different decisions to see how the game reacts to you. Its well written but does suffer some occasional translation hiccups which may cause for a sentence to have to be re-read a few times before it makes sense.
It is emotionally engaging at times and at one point did even manage to make me feel uncomfortable, bordering on not wanting to play the game any longer.
For just a couple of pounds, Pregnancy is worth playing just to broaden your view on the issues of rape and abortion, but it is in my eyes an essential tool that should be shown to teenagers; not to scare them, but to make them understand both sides to the story.
