Black the Fall Review

Take Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee and place it in a dystopian communist world and you have Black the Fall.

I won’t say this game will appeal to all, but one word for me sums it up – intriguing.

Black the Fall is a side-scrolling puzzle adventure game where you play a mechanist/factory slave who is trying to escape a futuristic communist regime.  Founders of the Bucharest-based Sand Sailor Studio, creators Cristian Diaconescu and Nicoleta Iordanescu, based the story on the Romanian communist regime which existed officially from 1947 to 1989.  As such the story behind this game is highly political, and like all dystopian adventures, explores the extreme case of humanity gone wrong.

All the puzzles are quite simple in hindsight, and the joy in this game is figuring out how to proceed.  Some of the puzzles are quite straight forward, such as rebounding a laser to trigger a door to open, or can be quite frustrating, such as timing what should be a straight-forward jump. Whether you are jumping or avoiding steam clouds of instant death, the controls in this game are clumsy, although these are factors that can be addressed in game updates, and do not detract from the game play too much.

Early in your adventure you obtain a handy laser pointer.  While also great for cats in the real world, in Black the Fall this allows you to control other workers, machines and activate sensors.  The laser aiming also suffers from control issues at times, and the need to scan the stage with a cross-hair is a game design aspect probably worth assessing.  The mind control factor, although relevant to the game’s overall story of control, is very reminiscent of Oddworld, and some may either find this endearing or just a tad too familiar.

Where Black the Fall falls short is connecting the immersive artwork and game concept with the actual gameplay.  While each scene is stunning, it can tend to be on the dark side to see detail, to the extent at times being near-black having the player rely upon sound (not particularly fun for those who are hearing impaired).   Because of the infinite lives and no time limit, there is a lack of pace, with some stages capable of being strategised while having a cup of tea, while others are over in a few frantic seconds.  The lack of connection to the protagonist adds to this lack of pace, and I have to say, I cared about Abe’s freedom, but I enjoyed Black the Fall only for the world itself.  Given the talent involved, some cinematic cut-scenes would have made that part of this journey perfect, and may have made me care about whatever-his-name-was (did he even have a name?).