Somerville Review (How does it compare to playdead?)
Somerville Review (How does it compare to playdead?)
Limbo and Inside are some of the best games of the last decade period. Jumpship carries some of this DNA, which leads to the inevitable comparisons. This was also one of the reasons that many, including myself, have Somerville as one of the most anticipated games of 2022. Somerville blends the lines between video games and cinema as the cinematography, direction and score on display during the opening scene are a rare occurrence in gaming.
What looks like a game resembling the War of the Worlds and the end of civilization is likely much more than it appears to be, if you want to see it. There are deeper meanings that are hidden under the pixels you are controlling and Somerville is clearly trying to elevate gaming to new levels with a clear vision and succinct experience.
I can understand why Jumpship would want to avoid comparisons to playdead as this is the studios first game and they want to establish their own identity but at the end of the day when you create a puzzle platformer with strong art direction and rich atmosphere, the comparisons are inevitable. Comparisons aside, Somerville is a great experience and a great debut for Jumpship.
A Man and his Blobs
You awaken on the couch in the countryside in what appears to be an alien invasion and quickly become separated from your family. What follows is one mans journey of trying to make his family whole again. Discussing any further elements of the story wouldn’t be fair as without a doubt, Somerville is a journey which will be different for everyone.
On a journey to find your family, you traverse through carefully crafted 2.5D scenes and landscapes, while trying to survive and solving some minor puzzles along the way. There are some dangers that lie in the road ahead, which leads to your demise but the checkpoints are perfect and usually after one death, its clear what needs to be done. The puzzles are just long enough to give you a sense of accomplishment.
Somerville is a short and refined experience lasting around 5 hours or so. The pacing of the game blends one chapter into the next, making for a journey that could easily be finished in one session and you will want to because unravelling the story is the main catalyst in Somerville. It’s less about quantity and more about quality because there is a lot to digest with the story that leaves you thinking about it long after, which very few games can do.
Fallville
Unlike some other puzzle platformers that can sometimes be challenging when trying to figure out some of the solutions, Somerville doesn’t give the player much frustration as the solutions are normally within reach in just a few short minutes. The focus is less on figuring out how to get to the next chapter and more about understanding what everything means.
Throughout the course of the game, the most dialogue you’ll hear is your character grunting or breathing hard, but just a few minor lines of dialogue executed properly and at the right moment could have gone a long way. In some games with isolated main characters this makes sense but there are times when you will come across others on your journey.
For the most part the game controls quite well, but sometimes the game mechanics can be a little more cumbersome to deal with causing rare instances of frustration. Most of the time this was a result of the perspective of the scene and not being able to gauge your distance properly.
As with most puzzle platformers, there is a linear path and a story trying to be told that wouldn’t be possible if you were able to venture off the beaten path. This removes all the autonomy from the character but it does result in some incredible choices in art direction and cinematography as you experience Jumpships vision.
Final Verdict
Somerville reminds me of a Richard Ashcroft song, Check The Meaning “Too much blood, too much hate, turn off the set. There’s got to be something more” There is much more to life than blood, hate and everything we see in the media.
Somerville is about love, hope, existence, and everything that encompasses the human condition or maybe I’m way off the mark on this and Somerville is just an iteration on HG Wells. What you get from Somerville will depend on your perspective.
Somerville is loaded with amazing cinematography, a great score, strong visuals, good pacing and a mysterious story that leaves you unsure what is going to happen next. At the end of the day if you came here for a game review and not a philosophy lesson, then Somerville is a great experience worthy of your time and further proves that games don’t need to be 100 hours to resonate and be impactful. Somerville is also on Xbox Game Pass giving no excuse not to see what you might get from it.