The puzzle platformer is a kind of genres that has seen loads of entries, most probably as a result of video games like Limbo and Braid kickstarting loads of love within the indie scene. Whereas not all of them have been good, it is nonetheless a style that will get fairly a little bit of stable entries. Somerville is wanting so as to add to that listing, with some beautiful graphics and a narrative a couple of household reuniting throughout an alien invasion. Is that sufficient? Learn our overview to search out out.
The sport opens up with a household getting house after an extended journey and enjoyable in entrance of the TV. It seems to be like a peaceable second till there is a loud droning noise and aliens come out of the sky. When one crash lands proper into the home, the husband touches the corpse and seemingly dies. He wakes up an unspecified time later to search out his home is ruined and the aliens seemingly received. Nevertheless, his household is on the market someplace, so he begins to search for him.
Whereas Somerville is a recreation with no dialogue, you will get the overall story fairly simply. I shortly discovered myself sucked into the story of this misplaced husband, looking for his household whereas surviving an alien invasion. It hits loads of the emotional notes I anticipated from this sort of story, together with a number of of those I did not. It isn’t excellent. There are many occasions when the shortage of dialogue made me go “this might make extra sense for those who simply had a primary human dialog,” however for those who’re right into a type of extra artsy tackle this story, you need to discover a lot to love right here.
You may play as this unnamed husband as he searches for his household. The fundamentals are fairly easy: you may run round and work together with objects, pulling or pushing them so that they’re able that helps you resolve puzzles. You may transfer fallen items of wooden, crates you can climb on, throw some switches, and staple items like that. It is nothing too out of the strange that you just’d see in another recreation. Nevertheless, the husband does have one distinctive trick.
You see, touching the alien at first of the sport has given you some powers. You initially get the flexibility to show alien objects into liquid, as long as you channel your powers by means of a light-weight supply. Afterward, you additionally acquire the flexibility to show liquids into solids once more. Quite a lot of the puzzles contain discovering gentle sources to channel your powers by means of, and ensuring the sunshine can truly attain the alien objects you want melted or solidified.
This truly results in some somewhat intelligent puzzles. In a single case you must open a door, however anytime you utilize the crank a hook lowers, and, as quickly as you let go, the door slams shut. To unravel the puzzle I wanted to go to a close-by room and begin a generator to show some lights on, permitting me to flood that room and get a mine cart. I may then fill the cart with water, crank the wheel simply sufficient so the hook lowers into the cart, solidify the water within the cart, after which push the cart down a hill so it forces the gate not solely open, however to remain open. It takes a bit to determine it out, but it surely’s a stable “aha!” second if you do.
Not all puzzles have that second although. One of many final puzzles within the recreation is, what I can greatest inform, principally simply Simon Says on a grand scale. But, regardless of how I attempted to take part within the puzzle, I simply could not handle to get it to work in a approach that made the sport blissful, and ultimately, once I was provided the selection between the unhealthy ending or persevering with the puzzle, I fortunately selected the unhealthy ending simply to get finished with that puzzle.
There are extra than simply puzzles in Somerville. There are a number of stealth segments the place you need to discover methods to sneak round monsters that may spear you for those who’re within the gentle for too lengthy. One notably cool one has you sneaking by means of a division retailer, avoiding stepping on noisy surfaces and knocking over mannequins so you do not unintentionally get consideration. There are additionally a number of chase scenes within the recreation, having you run away from aliens. They are not notably onerous, however they’re dramatic and visually eye-catching, so that they get a go total.
In truth, loads of Somerville is visually eye-catching. The very very first thing you see, earlier than the rest, is among the spaceships silhouetted towards the solar. The preliminary alien invasion is a good scene, with jets and alien ships flying round capturing at one another. A late-game chase scene has you climbing a spiral staircase as much as the highest of a bell tower whereas avoiding pictures from aliens. All of those scenes look incredible and did a lot to essentially promote me into the world of Somerville.
Whereas lots of the scenes look good basically, there are a number of moments that basically took me out of the sport. One, particularly, was a easy stroll down a hospital hallway. All of the scene had me do is stroll from level A to level B whereas individuals appeared in awe at this bizarre man who got here in. Simple. But all of their animations had been wonky at greatest. Lots of them snapped into the unsuitable animations, disappeared and reappeared, or performed animations that did not truly match up with their actions. It is a bizarre scene, one that absolutely killed my immersion within the recreation. Another random small issues, just like the household canine that seems and disappears at random however all the time appears to be the place you are going regardless of how little sense it made, additionally damage this immersion.
Somerville Assessment | Verdict
Nevertheless, regardless of this, I nonetheless discovered Somerville to be effectively price my time. The puzzles had been intelligent, the story is stable, and the sport actually is nice to have a look at. A couple of iffy scenes and unhealthy puzzles did not actually deliver it down, and if this can be a style you want then Somerville must be the following entry that you just seize for it.
TechRaptor reviewed Somerville on PC utilizing a duplicate offered by the writer. The sport can be obtainable on Xbox One and Xbox Sequence X|S.