There's something fascinating about Limbo clones (or is it Inside), some of them explore different variations of the storytelling these games have done. At times, it's either like a grand expansion of the genre by upping the spectacle or changing the tone and themes, with the experience being less sad and more humble and serene. This isn't that game.
This is something that Inside maybe could have been, as it moves instead to being a 3D side-scroller. It has a lot of spectacles, a premise that isn't too philosophical and just tries to be explosive in its own way. It has way more colors, and effectively has a more relatable humane side to it. Somerville is something that Inside isn't, and that is being a bit underwhelming.
But hear me out, I do think there's something quite to enjoy. The game has certain qualities, but it has a lot of riding, because even with its grand ambitions, it doesn't nail the few things that other Limbo clones and even Inside has done pretty well with. Which kind of sucks, because one of the devs was the co-founder of Playdead. Studio that made Limbo.
I like how this game manages to add more detail to their faces, so that you can effectively reciprocate that they're a family. Of course, here the baby awakens first. He is wobbling around, with me trying to figure out what I am supposed to interact with. There are no surprises here and there, outside references to, like, War of the Worlds.
That's before some alien invasion happens, the family wakes up in panic trying to escape but got destroyed. Their gateaway home crashes down, and one thing leading to another, the father touches the hand of one of the fighters who seem to glow. Then everything around him explodes, and he passes out.
Some time later, the house is decrepit, laid to waste, and the husband who passed out in the basement, wakes up. His family gone, and his faithful dog besides him. I never understood how the dog managed to survive or just find his way back to the father, it's just one of those things. But moving forward, it also turns he has a newly found ability from his right arm.
Moving out into the field exposed, the game widens up and allows you to see the vast emptiness while some weird drone balls follow you. They are made similarly to what the prismatic monoliths are made, but bear no harm. It's an interesting juxtaposition, but I couldn't figure out what to read, the isolated place or the interesting thing about the drone balls. It never allowed me to process both properly, which sucks.
The two big things that differentiate from the rest of the game, are the two abilities, and how they affect the surrounding area. They also come into being used for puzzle solving. This is what I would call the best part, because in order to solve them, you have to properly spot the objects to interact, and then find out how to bypass them. Studying the physics of the game, and using the objects around them as well. Before using these latent abilities, one of which melts the prismatic objects, the other hardens it.
The first half of the time pits you playing just as the father finding his family. The other half goes into a much more interesting route. That's due to how fast it is catching up to its final act. Everything is getting wrapped up that the pacing has significantly climbed instead of moving in slow pace.
The thing I really like about this game is just how bold it is to for its ambitions. It's obviously trying to be the Quiet Place meets The Tomorrow War in some way. The abilities granted to the MC were from the soldiers who were trained and transformed to fight against these prismatic forces. I don't really know how they actually got there, maybe that's really up to interpretations. I'll get to why this aspect kind of vexes me.
The atmosphere is great, the minimalist sound and music, adds tension to scenes when you least expect it. It obviously knows how to sell the game's premise pretty well. Because you're moving in vertical spaces in the levels, the camera kind of helps to pinpoint where you're supposed to focus or, at times, create the game's own mise en scène.
But it falters. It does feel like there's something grand going on, but the impact isn't really that good to correlate it well. It all feels like high concept, there are great ideas, but they don't jostle well. I stopped relating to the father character and just wanted to pass the level to see what comes next. It lacks good story beats, it sometimes moves too fast, or goes a bit too slow. The more I progress, the clearer it becomes just how shallow the pool is.
And because of how it goes, it fails to entice me to know more. I even stopped caring about the soldiers' side plot even though, again, the concept seems pretty amazing. But at least, the plot devices that exist gives me good set pieces to play through. Amazingly, pretty good set pieces.
This game has these crazy moments of where the character with his family gets trapped, and then one of the soldiers goes full super soldier mode and starts firing on the alien dogs that were chasing them. Alongside that, there's the alternative endings to the game based on how you make certain choices presented to you. Also, sick visual presentation is quite given.
And that I guess makes up for the fun factor, like it has interesting reasons to be played for. The game is also short, and I finished it around 4-5hrs. But really, I wish it did far more. It could have nailed the story, made me empathize more with the characters. Could have added more strong moments and more lore to create a rich world. Like I said, all of it felt like exploring it in high concepts.
I played games like Far: Changing Tides, Never Alone, Little Nightmares, and so on. There are plenty of games that knows what they're doing, and had added reasons to be actually enjoyed. This felt like I was playing some fancy blockbuster game. It had some blueprint of Inside's design, but just sort of hollow, too. I did anticipate this to come this year, and I guess I'll have to live with failed expectations. But I had fun in the short runtime, it had some good stuff going.
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