This indie game begins with showing some nice promise. The menu system has some good character and artwork and provides interesting choices. You’re able to choose the accent of the protagonist, either an American who doesn’t know where he’s from, or an Englishman with the worst case of stiff upper lip mixed with Batman’s Butler syndrome! Both will make any player cringe!
Moving on though,the game puts you in control of an unfortunate sod who gets knocked unconscious when an explosion erupts in an old research facility. Upon waking you need to make your way through the alien invested building and make it to safety. Along your way you’ll need to complete puzzles by finding and combining items. At times there are mini-games to complete to progress. It’s a bit like a 3rd person point and click game, to me it felt like a cross between Half-life and beneath a Steel Sky.
The controls are a little awkward to use though. When finding an item you have a selection of uses, such as throw, combine, drop or eat. The answers to puzzles aren’t always straight forward and it may cause frustration for some players, especially on harder difficulties. What made my life so much harder was the inability to invert the Y axis. I was only able to play by inverting the thumb stick using the Elite controller software.
Most of the game is set in dark, dank areas which makes seeing items that bit more difficult,however you’re able to ping all the interactive items in the room to make them glow for a few seconds.
Our English/American guy will help with vocal hints now and again, sometimes far too often however these can be turned off in the menu. However if you’re in the middle of a game, you have to save and quit before you can access the menu to make any changes.
The plot is pretty simple, escape and survive, however beyond that will take some playing to get any meat to the story.
The game is based on the Unreal engine, the individual areas do load pretty quick however it feels as though the developers haven’t taken full advantage of the tools at hand and have missed an opportunity. It doesn’t feel complete with animations a little****y and cartoony.
This game didn’t keep me interested for very long, I found this disappointing as was really interested when I first read about it.
What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments!