Cabernet

I can’t entirely recall how I ended up coming across Cabernet, just that I knew one day that I wanted to give it a look.

- Luke Greenfield

This is rather fitting, given the game itself revolves around understanding and uncovering a vampiric society that you’ve been thrust into. Much like how the vampires within the game can do to others, the knowledge and desire to play Cabernet simply appeared in mymind one day. Cabernet currently has a short demo to try, and after dedicating an afternoon to it, it’s safe to say that the game has more than enough going for it already.

Brought to us by the independent studio Party for Introverts, Cabernet is a 2D narrative RPG that places us into an unnamed location in Eastern Europe at the end of the 19th Century. The game opens up with the funeral of Morozova Elizaveta, called Liza by her friends and family, as her uncle goes over her greatest qualities. This serves as a basic character creation, as you control what her Uncle says about her and determine the rough outline of the kind of person Liza was in life. It’s a short scene, but one that displays an immediate understanding of melding game mechanics with story effectively, an understanding that continues as the demo progresses.