Adventure games in the traditional "point-and-click" sense have been something of a dying genre over the past decade or so. It's no surprise that this particular style of plodding and trial-and-error focused gameplay fell out of favour so quickly.Although some developers have attempted to modernise some of these concepts, few developers make me yearn for a proper adventure game revival like the developers of The Fall. Combining a gorgeous art style, compelling storytelling and wonderfully creative puzzles, Over The Moon have delivered an exciting and extremely promising debut to their crowdfunded trilogy.
The Fall opens with the player character, A.R.I.D., a female artificial intelligence integrated into a combat suit, taking a near-fatal fall. The AI awakens and becomes autonomous after the human inside the suit is rendered unconscious. A.R.I.D's primary function is to ensure the survival of its human, at any cost. The game's story essentially takes the player through a mysterious and abandoned facility as A.R.I.D finds a way to save her human and escape. Fighting and outsmarting the remaining facilities' inhabitants along the way.
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The story's protagonist encountering another rogue AI
The game's narrative is extremely well-told and highly compelling from start to finish, and the player's encounters with other characters in the world are well-written and well-acted. The game sets up a foreboding sense that something real bad happened here. There's a nice level of diversity in the locations and tasks that ensure the narrative never gets boring. Naturally, however, The Fall's episodic format somewhat works against the game's strong narrative, since the ending is inevitably a cliffhanger and a lot of things remain unanswered. Here's hoping the other episodes deliver on the promise...
Another of The Fall's biggest strengths is its strong sense of atmosphere that remains throughout the story. A powerful sense of dread and emptiness fills the facility, and every character you encounter seems to have some kind of dark history. A lot of the tasks you are forced to complete in order to get the medical attention you require present the player with a bleak and dark future, a future where the fate of humanity seems uncertain. Furthermore, the game's extremely strong visual style very effectively emphasizes lurking sense of danger and persistent tension, whilst the solid sound design and soundtrack adds a lot to game's stylish horror themes.
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An example of the game's beautiful and haunting art style in action
In terms of the actual gameplay, The Fall combines point-and-click puzzle-solving with precise shooting and light 2D platforming elements. Many of the puzzles, naturally, require the use of item X on object Y for outcome Z. Your flashlight is used to highlight, investigate or use objects in the environment, while you can switch to your weapon at the press of a button. The puzzles certainly require an element of trial-and-error, which can get a little tedious at times, but the puzzles are so smartly crafted and the game's logic is so consistent that I rarely found myself getting frustrated. I found that many of the puzzles have a Portal-like quality to them, in that you feel pretty darn smart when you eventually solve them. As for the shooting, its relatively simple but feels pretty tight and popping robots heads off is pretty satisfying. The game sometimes requires the use of your weapon outside of combat, too, which was certainly a nice change of pace.
Ultimately, The Fall is a wonderfully-made example of how adventure games can be done effectively in the days long since the LucasArt classics of yesteryear. As well as a great example of how style and substance can triumph over a huge budget and sheer manpower. The Fall's excellent blend of gameplay and storytelling make it one 2014's most interesting titles, and the first episode sets an extremely high bar for the rest of the trilogy.
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