Lose Yourself in Indie Puzzle Game Black the Fall

Dour, dark and oppressive seems to exist the running tendency among the more popular indie puzzle-platformers. Possibly the nearly notable examples of such trend are Limbo and Inside by Playdead. Other examples include Monochroma, A Shadow'south Tale, Deadlight and, to a lesser extent, Salt and Sanctuary. Romanian developers Sand Crewman Studio await to run with this and piece of work with existent life childhood experiences to bring us the incredibly interesting Black the Autumn [official site].

If would be all as well like shooting fish in a barrel to dismiss Black the Fall on showtime glance. That would be a huge mistake though, every bit the game has a number of surprises up its sleeve. There's piddling doubting that it'south visually very like to Within, generally beingness monochromatic with a very sparing employ of color. This selective use features just red and yellow, red to indicate danger and yellow to highlight interactive elements. At least this is the first indication for the majority of the demo. At the finish you escape the factory and are greeted with color, and the rest of the world.

I was guilty of assuming that it's just some other dark and dismal indie puzzle-platformer from watching somebody play the demo. Fortunately, the hands-on session I had at EGX proved me so wrong, while repeatedly punishing me for beingness so presumptive. Multiple deaths, even having to ask for a hint from one of the developers, inventive puzzles and a very interesting theme left me thinking nigh the game and the message information technology'southward aiming to put across long later playing.

The core team that brand upwards Sand Crewman Studio every bit Black the Autumn was started grew up in Communist run Romania. This has dictated how the game originated and its core elements. The loss of identity, fear of others and especially fear of the authority are all themes the game aims to tackle. Running with the starting time element, y'all play a serf. You're just ane of many identical cogs in the machine. It's also used to excellent effect with the inclusion of other serfs, where you direct them to solve a number of the puzzles constitute throughout the game.

What actually surprised me when playing was the variety of puzzles. Normally you volition find in this genre that certain elements will be reused, just changing locations to make it feel fresh. In just one pocket-size section of the game I encountered puzzles ranging from the run of the mill platform jumping to logic puzzles which required things to be activated in a certain gild. One example existence to get a serf to plough first move a projector to a wall, then turn information technology on to play something that will distract a guard.

What also worked well were the inventive and surprising puzzles that you simply don't become to experience much at all. The example of this being a timing puzzle where you had to move by pipes bravado out steam. The twist, it was completely black and y'all had to rely on sound alone. It was unusual to shut my eyes in a crowded area and solve something based on ane sense lonely.

There'south no way to guarantee that Blackness the Fall will handle its themes as well as it's aiming to. Nonetheless, the session I had with the game, plus the conversation I had with Andreea Vaduva (one of the developers) leads me to believe they will handle it well and really do themselves justice. A lot of care and attending has also gone into it, having been in development for two years.

The game was starting time signed up by the Square Enix Commonage. Following that they had a successful Kickstarter. This does prove that the game already has a strong post-obit, which bodes well. What I did learn is that the PC version is close to beingness finished, with both PS4 and Xbox One ports are incoming; the plan is to release on all three platforms in the 2d quarter of next year.