NEXT Studios have just released their shadow-based puzzle game Iris.Fall. We at The Zombie Chimp have been lucky enough to get our hands on this little beauty and give it a darn good reviewing before its release. So with little more ado, here it is.
Iris.Fall tells the story of Iris. After awaking from a rather strange dream, she sees a mysterious black cat, and follows it. The cat runs through the streets and in to an old abandoned theatre. As she makes her way through the theatre, she finds she can step into the shadows and leave her physical form behind. It is this skill that can help her traverse this light and dark labyrinth. The further she gets through the maze, the more she starts to realise that the theatre and its strange magic are all connected to her somehow.
This story is told by way of animated cutscenes. There’s no speech, so everything plays out like a mime, but the mystery of the story still comes through. I’m not going to spoil the story for you, but suffice to say we’re not looking at a monumental epic of a storyline here but it’s intriguing and mysterious enough to pull you through the game and each puzzle screen.
It’s the puzzles that this game is all about. The game is broken down into a number of puzzle rooms, each room with an entry an exit and the puzzle in the middle that will help you get from A to B. In these rooms there will be one or more points in the game that enable Iris to turn into pure shadow and back again. The puzzles revolve around this idea. For example, you can get to the exit because there is a large chasm in front of you, However, shadows caused by other objects may create a shadow bridge across. By dissolving into shadow, you can cross the shadow bridge and then corporialise on the other side.
This is not the only element of the puzzles, many of them require you to use specific items or pull relevant levers and so on. There are also, little standalone puzzles that might need you to pose puppets or reconnect faulty cabling. There’s a good array of puzzle types and solutions, so you don’t feel that you’re doing the same thing over and over again.
As well as a variation on puzzle types, there also seems to be a fair variation on the difficulty of the puzzles. Some of them seem to be fairly intuitive, and there are others where it feels like you’re tried everything; every combination of levers and items has been used and still nothing. Sure, it’s fairly irritating when you are stuck on a problem, but that’s the same for most puzzle games. I feel there should always be sticking points in puzzle games but they shouldn’t last forever, and so far I haven’t got majorly stuck on anything.
I am a big fan of how Iris.Fall looks. The palette for the game has very washed out colours except for the two major colours of white and dark, for the light and shadow. The animation is charmingly done, with dark mysterious overtones in the overall style. There is no speech, apparently Iris is not a girl who talks to herself when exploring, but the music adds to the story and style of game. I love how Iris.Fall looks and in my opinion is the best part.
But would you want to go back and play it over and over again? Maybe once or twice. The puzzles might be enough of a draw to bring you back to the game after completion once or twice, but as there is only one route through the game, one story and one way to do the puzzles, I can’t imagine many people will go back and play it very often.
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Jim Franklin
Jim Franklin is a freelance writer, living in Derby UK with his wife and his player 3. When time allows he likes nothing more than losing himself in a multi-hour gaming session. He likes most games and will play anything but prefers MMO's, and sandbox RPG's.
