Being a fan of puzzle games, mostly because I feel like a genius when I figure out a complex puzzle, I was intrigued by The Fall. I felt I needed to finish this so I could add it to my list of puzzle games bested! The Fall was developed by Over The Moon Games and originally released in 2014 on Steam, GOG, The Humble store and the Wii U, it has recently seen a release on PS4 and Xbox One in July of this year. The best way to describe this game would be a sci-fi action adventure, side scrolling platform puzzle game with Metroidvania gameplay concepts. The visuals seem like they have been heavily influenced by Limbo which, along with subtle music and sound, makes for an extremely eerie game. You play as an A.I. called A.R.I.D (Autonomous Robotic Interface Device) which has been activated in a Mark-7 Combat Suit after you have crashed onto an unknown planet and the suit is receiving no response from the pilot. The basic point of the game is to make your way through various puzzles in order to get medic help for your pilot while being restricted by three parameters: Must Protect Active Pilot Must Be Obedient Must Not Misrepresent Reality (i.e. Do Not Lie.) Having to complete puzzles with the above restrictions in place is an interesting concept as it makes you think way outside box. There’s a lot of lateral thinking involved in this game and it’s apparent early on that you are meant to think and assess the situations like an A.I. I know most puzzle games make you think logically anyway but this comes across as a different kind of logic. It’s more like a cold, calculating logic where the desired end result is all that matters. The supporting characters, which total two so not that many and are also A.I’s, are a good addition to this game. Each character has their own parameters they are programmed to follow and watching each of them interact with each other, whether that be to help or hinder A.R.I.D and all the while having to keep to their parameters, is an interesting concept and keeps the story interesting. I did have a couple of things that annoyed me about the game unfortunately. Firstly, some solutions to some of the puzzles weren’t clear and took a while to figure out. There were times were you would pick up an item as it would be helpful, apparently, but whenever you went to use all you would get is a message saying it can’t be used. After hearing that for the 20th time it can get old very quickly. Again, I know this is a puzzle game designed to make you think but, when there is no obvious solution and you’ve spent maybe half an hour trying to figure out one puzzle it can get a little frustrating. Secondly, and lastly, was the length of the game. I know this is part of a trilogy but if you can get through the puzzles at a decent pace you could complete this in a couple of hours. I am in two minds about this though. As it is only part one I’m sure when all parts are released it may last a decent length but for me it was just a little too short. This review is based on the Xbox version of the game, provided by Xbox. Thanks!
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