The Fall

This isn't actually a review as much as a little information. People saying that it is incomplete are partially correct. It is suppose to be a trilogy, and on kickstarter it was presented as such, and this was referred to as the first of 3 episodes. So while the game is fun, and the story has it's merits even alone, you will need the two games that aren't yet out for the full thing. In my opinion this is wort on it's own, but be aware that two more games need to come out for the full story. Also, as it's kickstarter supporter I can tell you that the developers were very enthusiastic, made good efforts to overcome problems and forthcoming when they had them. In light of that I believe that the other 2 episodes will come.

I'll start with the reason I knocked a star off: The Fall is only part one of a trilogy. Take it on its own, though, and it stands up quite well. Graphics are great, although a bit dark. Most of the backgrounds are silhouettes, with very little detail, while the foreground scenery is a bit of a mixed bag, ranging from okay to really good. The sounds and music are equally good; I never found anything which stood out as being irritating or repetitive, but I don't really remember any of the music that well. That might be because it just fit the scenes so well, but it's not really memorable. Gameplay is decent. Part point-and-click adventure, part platforming, part action/shooter. Much of your time is spent solving puzzles (find item A, use on object B, etc), with the occasional bit of combat mixed in. The platforming is barely there. The game's called a Metroidvania style game, but it's not. It's too linear, and much too short, with the emphasis on moving from one area to another by solving puzzles. The combat is a bit frustrating, given how dark the game is, and only the regenerating shield + how little combat there actually is makes it bearable. The keyboard/mouse controls are awkward and don't work very well; you really need a controller to be able to play with any ease. The high point is, without a doubt, the story and atmosphere. I won't spoil anything (even though you might guess what happens early on), but I found myself getting invested in the characters and their situation. ARID is one of the best written AI I've ever seen, and I have to applaud the writers and voice actors for their stellar work all-around. If you're looking for a game to spend a few hours on, and The Fall is on sale, I can't recommend it enough. It may not be long, and it may only be the first in a series, but it's good while it lasts.

A good, short game that ends on a cliffhanger is still a game that's ended before it could even get started. In 3 hrs I beat the Steam version twice. The Fall is a puzzle game with occasional action sections that boil down to cover-based shooting in a 2D environment. Most puzzles are intuitive, but there's no real help in game for when they aren't. The puzzles are chiefly inventory based, and you won't even see your inventory unless you find something you can interact with. The Fall is a good start with a solid scifi premise. The developer has been promising more ever since the game first came to Steam last year, but part 2 is yet to appear. Buy on sale or ignore.

The Fall tries to marry a 2D action platformer with old-style adventure gaming, but fails to do either well. Most of the game is solving puzzles, and many suffer from the same bizarre logic that plagued the adventure game genre. There's nothing as bad as the infamous kill-the-yeti-with-a-cream-pie puzzle from King's Quest V, but there's a couple that come close. Even worse, in a way, is that you'll sometimes know exactly how to solve the puzzle, but you didn't try to solve it in exactly the way the game wanted. Also, it is incredibly easy to miss items critical to progression, as they are sometimes very small and the game is extremely dark. The combat is no great shakes either. Most enemies will hide behind cover and shoot at you at regular intervals. You can hide behind cover yourself, or later, you can get a cloaking ability. The enemies will always keep their heads out for a good amount of time after shooting, which is good, because aiming isn't great. Shooting enemies will never try to flush you out of cover, so all you have to do is wait for your shield to regenerate before shooting at them. There are kamikaze robots who run up and apparently fry your systems if they hit you - which is frustrating because it's an automatic death - but you can usually kill them easily by shooting while backing up. There's no nuance to the combat and there would be no challenge at all to it, were it not for how easily you take damage. There are also quite a few bugs; most of them are just annoying (or funny), but twice the game simply stopped working. Pressing pause gave me the "Running Menu.Exe" text, but nothing else would happen, and I had to close the game thru Task Manager. I'd like to think these things will be improved in the sequels,, because the concept is interesting; it just needed more polish.