Somerville

Game Title: Somerville
Released: November 14, 2022
Game Length: 3 Hours
Grade: B- 

Gameplay 

Route: The game could be defined as a walking simulator with some intermittent puzzle obstacles placed in your way. There will be no button prompts other than a few interactions when you are first introduced to a new mechanic. There are a number of visual clues that will show you where to go next such as orange paint on objects, characters pointing you in a certain direction, animals that show you where you need to hide, or graffiti that highlights a main route. Unless you are keeping to a steady pace and learn on what the game wants you to do during a chase, your experience can quickly devolve and cause frustration.

Mechanics: There are two main things you need to learn when playing the game. The first is to always stay out of the light. These can consist of purple lights that evaporate you, red lights from dogs trying to shoot at you, and lit areas of a dark room where enemies can surprise you. The second gives you the ability to manipulate dark matter. You can turn the substance to its primary liquid form with your blue power or harden to a solid form with your red power. As long as you connect to some sort of light source, you can further spread your ability. 

Story

Chapters: The game is divided up in multiple chapters that consist of your journey. You can separate these into four main sections. The first contains the arrival of the aliens in your family home. There's a long chase through the woods and into the refugee camp. The second has you fall down a deep hole as you explore the underground mine shafts in search of a hidden facility. The third brings you to the surface again where you find other survivors. The last portion of the game is perhaps the hardest to understand as you venture through what appears to be abbreviated sequences of the whole game, shattered environments of what might have been replicated by your mind, and a final encounter with the alien leaders.

The Ending: While the atmosphere and setting can get overly complex, what transpires at the end is perhaps the biggest detriment to the entire experience. There are a total of five different endings. The resignation ending is when you fall for the alien's ruse and give up on your pursuit too soon. War of the Worlds has you combine your abilities to destroy the aliens. The most common ending is Resignation Reprise that consists of you repeating back the alien patterns until a house appears with your family. This is technically not the good ending. Family First has you somewhat respond to retrieve your family. To receive the final and best ending of Understanding, you will need to learn the alien's language by recognizing how the little spheres react all throughout your journey.

Summary

Review: Somerville starts out great with some excellent atmosphere, a setting that drives you to figure out what is going on, and nice tension as you explore different environments. Unfortunately, that feeling starts to dissipate when you get stuck trying to figure out where you need to go or what you need to do. The pacing feels off after you play for a couple of hours and ultimately get thrown into some grand finale that is open to interpretation. The biggest sin is hiding the good ending behind a very cryptic code that had to be learned from your encounters throughout the whole game. As interesting as it was to build tension and engage with the story, a playthrough could be watched in under three hours.