Recreating memories one clue at a time.
The game couldn’t be simpler to pick up, offering a point and click interface. There is no need for any extended tutorials as the game is self explanatory and the UI is as clear as it is pleasing. The soothing music is complemented by the pastel colour palette. It is bright but never harsh maintaining the soft, airy aesthetic throughout.
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The waters are clear as we clear the waterways.
Upon booting up the game I was greeted with a very wholesome screen with a small amount of information about the developer. They are creating this game after leaving school to follow their dream, living from their savings while living on a boat! I honestly would love if more indie games would do this as I immediatly felt more of a connection knowing the story behind the game. This isn’t the entire reason for the recommendation of course. The game is zen, therapeutic and ran smooth as can be.
In Spilled! we take control of a boat, driving around clearing spillages and plastics polluting the water around us. The more that we collect, we can cash it in to buy upgrades for our boat, allowing more efficiency in our cleansing operation. The more that we clear the waters of the litter, the clearer they get in colour, giving us the real time effect of the efforts we are making and we can collect wildlife along the way.
Lente the developer, is very transparent about the goals of her project. This isn’t going to be a long game, but it is clearly made with love and I hope that the game sells well when it gets a release, allowing her to move onto further projects!
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Brothers: a Tale of Two Sons is the story of two brothers on their epic quest to find medicine for their poorly father. You control both brothers throughout a variety of environments and situations in the fantasy world that they live in. At its heart it is an adventure 3D platformer. It is not a puzzler but does involve some problem solving. It is a simple game, driven along by its story, which is strange to say as the characters don’t speak in a real language. The story was emotional, but much as I wanted to love it, I’m so sad to admit that it didn’t quite strike the chord with me.
The controls couldn’t be simpler, and yet somehow can be so difficult! The left half of your controller controls one brother and the right half controls the other. Even then, it’s only the thumbsticks and the trigger buttons. It is such an obvious way to do it yet feels absolutely unique and honestly can be surprisingly tricky. The more you go on the more you get used to it but even by the end, I still kept getting muddled up. I felt like I was playing the piano at one point. People with good coordination might get the hang of it quickly but even if you can’t, you can’t really go too wrong. The game itself was surprisingly easy. I completed it all by myself without having to google anything, which basically means that anyone could play it, as I usually get stuck on something. Don’t go into it expecting a challenge.
The game took me somewhere between 3-4 hours to complete, all in one session. Throughout the game there are themes of teamwork and brotherhood, but the whole story is tinged with an underlying feel of tragedy, sorrow and was even disturbing at times. All of these feelings were produced by the moving environments and the haunting soundtrack. There is no platinum trophy but it took me maybe an extra 30 mins-1 hours to 100% it. There aren’t any trophies for the main storyline but I suggest playing through yourself first without thinking about them. I only got 1 on my first playthrough. Then when you are finished you can go back chapter by chapter to mop them up.
The graphics weren’t particularly good but granted, it is a game from the last generation and it is more about the style than the graphics themselves. It retains an animated style which compliments the storytelling. There was one particular environment that I loved and without spoiling anything, it made me feel really small. As for the rest of the game – the camera angles weren’t the best, you could only move them as and when allowed. I encountered three glitches but they were mainly all graphical, nothing game breaking. Quite immersion breaking though as one happened at a crucial story moment unfortunately.
As much as I can understand the people that loved this game and were truly moved by it, I hate the fact that I am not one of those people. I just felt that, to me, certain plot elements felt a bit forced. I have been impressed and had so many feels from so many other story driven games, I think my expectations were a bit high. Having said that, I thought the world was really intriguing. I think I would have preferred a bigger game with speaking characters to show off the story in its glory. Personally, if I could go back, I wouldn’t buy this game. However, if you can get it for a couple of quid it might be worth a try, and I think it would be a great PS Plus game (if I hadn’t already bought it of course).
Update – Years later, I am reading this back and I am quite shocked at my reaction! My opinion of the game has definitely increased over time, and I never even mentioned that this game has a moment that makes it worth playing. Ultimately I am very glad that I played it, and there were some powerful moments, they obviously just didn’t live up to my expectations at the time.
I had heard a lot about this strange little game and it was free one month on PS Plus so I jumped at the chance to play it. I had heard that it was only a short game and that people had such emotional reactions to it. I was very intrigued as to why everyone would be raving about such a little short game.
It is only around two hours long, and it is literally a journey. It is a very pretty game, traveling through some different terrains and figuring out simple puzzles to help you onto the next leg of the journey. It’s hard to know how much to say about this game because a lot of people think some of the beauty of the game it is in the unknown, and its more of an experience that you need to have for yourself. It is a visually and auditorily a beautiful game. That is definitely a lot of what made it enjoyable to me.
Once you have finished the game you might be left feeling emotional, feeling delighted, feeling underwhelmed or wondering what the hell just happened. I was the latter two. After doing some reading of other peoples opinions and theories of the game I decided to give it another go. There is no platinum trophy but it is an easy 100% and it’s not as if it takes a long time to play. I played again, this time with a better understanding of the game. I finished it again and this time, I actually shed a tear. I can’t even explain it. The game has its vague but literal storyline as well as a metaphorical one and it just got to me the second time. It must be a mixture of the music, the visuals and the meanings.
If you can get it for under £5 then you might like too, it depends on your gaming style. If you are only a FPS and action gamer then you may not like this. However, if you like quirky, different games and experiences then this may be more your cup of tea. I can’t really say it is story driven – there isn’t any dialogue – but I can say it kept me thinking for a few days later and telling everyone about it. I don’t even know exactly why, but it did make an impact and that’s what matters.
SPOILERS BELOW. DO NOT READ ON UNLESS YOU HAVE ALREADY PLAYED THE GAME TO THE END.
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