Somerville

Somerville is a unique and emotional game about surviving an alien apocalypse, and what family will do to keep together. Take control of a small family who are desperately trying to survive in a changed world. This game has no dialogue, and instead relies on conveying emotion through its design. This is one part art and two parts game, so if you are looking for something that takes an existing formula and tries something new with it, this is without a doubt the game for you. Let’s jump in and take a look.

Gameplay

With gameplay that is a clear ode to games like Inside and Limbo, Somerville still definitely strikes out on its own with some unique and respectable choices. A 3D adventure game, this title focuses on the journey a family takes to survive an alien invasion. They must traverse the ruins of civilization by interacting with a strange alien substance that can be altered to suit certain simple needs.

You may encounter this substance blocking the path, so you can burn it away to reveal a tunnel. Or maybe you encounter the substance in a pool and need to use your equipment to harden it so you can walk across. The developers talked at length about wanting to avoid the concept of this being another puzzle game where everything can be solved with jumping, so they took out jumping and created something fresh and new.

Story

The story is quite simple and, as stated earlier, there are no lines of dialogue. Instead, you navigate the world and its people by reading their body language and actions, over their words. You must travel the perilous world and unravel the mysteries of Earth’s terrifying new visitors.

This game is only about 5 hours on average. So, although its not an epic lasting you 60 hours. It is still a fantastically realized game with a lot of emotion and personality.

Visuals

The visuals of this title are absolutely stunning. Presented with a unique polygonal art style that is still soft on the eyes. It shares an art style with Virginia by Variable State, but there is so much to this than you immediately recognize at first glance.

When the characters are reacting to something, they might turn around quickly so their face moves a bit along with their hair. When they run, their bags and the things attached to them will flap or shake with the gait. Its small things but they add so much to the overall style of the game. Everything has so much personality and I found it all to be a truly stunning and engaging.

There are some animations in this that you will only see once and they never come up again. The effort that was placed into this game is truly brilliant.

Pros

• Fantastic Visuals
• Excellent Story
• Interesting Puzzles

Cons

• I wish it was longer.