I played through this game with my roommate in one night. This is an adventure / puzzle game reminiscent of Inside and Limbo. Apparently the studios co-founder also co-founded the studio that developed this game but the connection between these titles ends there. The game involves a father trying to make his way to his family after some sort of alien invasion occurs.
In regards to the story of this game, I think that the developers do a great job of utilizing the environment and atmosphere to tell their story. Without any dialogue, there is a great focus on showing, not telling. The story itself isn’t incredibly interesting or gripping, but the atmosphere and the mystery around everything is great and keeps you wanting to play more to discover what has happened to this world. Unfortunately, this intrigue is lost due to a pretty jarring tonal shift towards the end of the game. The ending (at least the one I got) is also a bit of a let down and doesn't feel as grand or powerful as it seems to want to be.
Somerville is undoubtedly beautiful as well which is probably its best trait. The environments are especially gorgeous and the war-torn surface areas are wonderful to look at. The low poly graphics are great and the lighting plays a huge part in making these environments look so good. It’s such an interesting world that you’re wandering through and I’m glad that the developers spent the time to make this game look so good.
Gameplay wise somerville has you walking through the environment and solving some simple puzzles. The puzzles are all relatively simple and nowhere near as great as the puzzles are in Limbo or Inside, but they keep things interesting and are never frustrating to figure out. The puzzles all revolve around some sort of powers you gain that can alter the properties of an alien, fluid-like substance. It makes for some interesting puzzles sometimes and these powers also tie in well to the story and lore.
I know that a lot of people were unhappy about the bugs and jank that were apparently packed into this game, however, I didn’t experience this to the extent that others seemingly did. There were definitely issues with the camera in places, as well as some strange graphical issues, but there was nothing that occurred often enough to really annoy me too much. I occasionally got stuck on things and the movement feels pretty awkward at times but that was pretty much it.
Somerville is a fine game and I think it got more hate than it deserved, but it still feels like a pale imitation of other similar games. I think that it would benefit from a style more in vein of Inside’s semi-3d style. The movement in all directions tends to lead to confusion in places and also led to some of the camera related issues I experienced. You are essentially confined to one path anyways, so I think that they could have preserved their beautiful environments in a stricter 2d setting. Nevertheless, I had fun playing it and would still recommend it to anybody who enjoys these type of adventure and puzzle oriented games.
In regards to the story of this game, I think that the developers do a great job of utilizing the environment and atmosphere to tell their story. Without any dialogue, there is a great focus on showing, not telling. The story itself isn’t incredibly interesting or gripping, but the atmosphere and the mystery around everything is great and keeps you wanting to play more to discover what has happened to this world. Unfortunately, this intrigue is lost due to a pretty jarring tonal shift towards the end of the game. The ending (at least the one I got) is also a bit of a let down and doesn't feel as grand or powerful as it seems to want to be.
Somerville is undoubtedly beautiful as well which is probably its best trait. The environments are especially gorgeous and the war-torn surface areas are wonderful to look at. The low poly graphics are great and the lighting plays a huge part in making these environments look so good. It’s such an interesting world that you’re wandering through and I’m glad that the developers spent the time to make this game look so good.
Gameplay wise somerville has you walking through the environment and solving some simple puzzles. The puzzles are all relatively simple and nowhere near as great as the puzzles are in Limbo or Inside, but they keep things interesting and are never frustrating to figure out. The puzzles all revolve around some sort of powers you gain that can alter the properties of an alien, fluid-like substance. It makes for some interesting puzzles sometimes and these powers also tie in well to the story and lore.
I know that a lot of people were unhappy about the bugs and jank that were apparently packed into this game, however, I didn’t experience this to the extent that others seemingly did. There were definitely issues with the camera in places, as well as some strange graphical issues, but there was nothing that occurred often enough to really annoy me too much. I occasionally got stuck on things and the movement feels pretty awkward at times but that was pretty much it.
Somerville is a fine game and I think it got more hate than it deserved, but it still feels like a pale imitation of other similar games. I think that it would benefit from a style more in vein of Inside’s semi-3d style. The movement in all directions tends to lead to confusion in places and also led to some of the camera related issues I experienced. You are essentially confined to one path anyways, so I think that they could have preserved their beautiful environments in a stricter 2d setting. Nevertheless, I had fun playing it and would still recommend it to anybody who enjoys these type of adventure and puzzle oriented games.
RedBackLoggd
1 month ago
Thanks for putting it on my radar. Limbo and Inside were definitely similar - atmosphere heavy games with implied storytelling and light puzzles, so sounds like they accomplished things well.
Interesting that they went full 3D. That definitely might strike some as misguided, especially if it's as confusing as you say.