Fragments of Him is an emotional journey from the perspective of three people in the life of Will, the boy that made such an impact on their lives that he lives on in their memories. The game follows Will during the last few days of his life, with fragments of his past being told by his grandmother, ex-girlfriend and partner.
At the beginning however, you’re met with several choices. None of these actually make a difference in the end, but during the first playthrough you wonder how any of these small subtle differences could have helped the protagonist avoid the tragic accident that led to his death. At first you pay no mind as to how this would even matter, choosing almost at random. But the game has brilliant design. After leading you through the main story, it invokes an emotional response that makes you frantically search for a “way out” of the path that you already chose for Will.
My favourite character was the grandmother, as she was the most intellectually fascinating of the three. Even Will, the main protagonist, seemed quite two-dimensional. The grandmother, a woman in her late 60s I presume, discovered that the child she helped raise was gay. She found out in the most “grandmotherly” way possible, by deciding to surprise Will at university. Her character was quite blunt and honest, and it was truly a breath of fresh air to hear someone speak about their beliefs. In the end, she finally realized that Will was truly the man she wanted him to be. While you might consider these spoilers, they are only part of the picture I need to discuss in order to reveal the nature of the game to you.
The ex-girlfriend was quite dull, like most girls at that age, harping on about how in love she was with Will. It’s authentic in a way, but I would have liked to know more about her, instead of his small contribution to her becoming depressed. Will’s boyfriend on the other hand is prone to elaborate exaggerations, trying to remove all the furniture from his house in an attempt to destroy Will’s memory after his death. The final acts in this “play” were quite emotional, however it felt quite cliché in a way, since you’d hear the same narrative play out in one of those Hallmark classics. He does come around, like they always do, and return everything like it was in the end, only to go on sounding like a tragic rendition of 10 Things I Hate About You.
His mother and father do make an appearance in the game, but as insignificant pawns in his growth. The mother, an American woman, and the father, do not play any part in the game, and they never speak or give any context to the game other than being liberal which was concerning to the grandmother.
As for gameplay, you cannot classify this as a traditional game. It offers slight gameplay choices, but these are only there to create the illusion that you’re in control of the narrative. The game gives you mostly point-and-click tasks to advance the story. As such this is more of a story-driven interactive experience. In that aspect this game achieves its main objective in a fulfilling way.
Summary
Fragments of Him, a collection of “fragments” from the memories of his closest friends and family, is a fascinating yet heartbreaking look into the life of a man who died way too young. It gives you a decent amount of backstory and offers some replayability. However this will not give you a different outcome. The game sets out to tell this story from these characters’ perspectives and executes this flawlessly. The game’s graphics are quite bland however, but this does not affect the title in any way. For the emotions alone this is one of the best titles I’ve ever played. This game is a definite buy.
Dreyer was a regular ICXM contributor between 2016–2017, publishing 139 articles across opinion pieces, game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news. Their work focused on hands-on reviews, platform commentary, and breaking-news reporting during the Xbox One X launch year and Microsoft’s wider Play Anywhere / UWP gaming initiative. They post on X as @dreyer_smit.