The Fall
In early 2017 I reviewed the indie game, The Fall. For a small game developer, Over The Moon delivered a well received product for their first game, and have followed it up with The Fall 2: Unbound.
Since four years separated the release
of the two games, the developer helpful included a recap of season
one. Unbound begins shortly after the original ended, with
the protagonist, ARID, deposited in a discarded heap of parts. ARID
(an intelligent super suit) spent The Fall continually
overriding and violating her parameters to save the human inside her,
only to discover that she was empty. As a result the station deemed
her dangerous and discarded her.
In The Fall 2, ARID is not
content to be abandoned and destroyed. Like the previous game, she
begins to set her own rules, and the first is “Save Myself”.
ARID pursues this goal with a relentless focus. She is being
prohibited from accessing her body, and instead searches a digital
neural network to find who is blocking her. In the first third of
The Fall 2 she meets three other robots; a
butler, a monk warrior called the One, and a female companion-bot on
a military base. Aside from traveling around the big, empty, gray,
and dull neural world (which at least improves later with the ability
to fast travel from host to host), the game revolves around ARID
invading and interacting with these characters. While the characters
appear simple in name, each brings their own charm. In their initial
encounters ARID abuses the hosts in her quest to save herself. She
achieves her desire only to see it turn to defeat. In despair ARID
reevaluates her situation and realizes that she needs the help of
others, not their domination. She sets a new rule, “Save the
Hosts”. In this second part ARID alternates between the three
hosts to move forward on separate quests to save them.
The Fall 2 improves on the game
play of the original, but it's not perfect. The core mechanic is the
point and click, interacting with objects and the environment. It
still suffers from too many objects to interact with. The developer
shouldn't make it possible to click on so many options, if they have
no result. The icons clutter the screen and distract from the
background visuals. Unbound still requires trial and error to
determine the association of objects, though they are not as obscure
as those of The Fall. Aside from these, The Fall 2
introduces a variety of new puzzles. After deciding to help her
hosts, ARID gains the ability to see through the perspectives of
others. She uses the Companion's optimistic and helpful attitude to
inform the One, uses his elitist and focused mindset to help the
Butler, and uses the Butler's utilitarian and obedient point of view
to aid the Companion.
Even after deciding to help the hosts
ARID is still selfish. Over the second half of The Fall 2 she
rewrites her code to unlock her empathy. ARID learns that empathy
and understanding are more useful than the manipulation and
domination she practiced before. At last the villain says,“True
control exists when those controlled enforce their own boundaries.”
When ARID hears this, she recognizes it as her own behavior. She had
viewed others the needs of others as irrelevant, and their-selves as
disposable. Hearing it from the enemy she rejects it entirely.
Like the first game, The Fall 2
occasionally forces the player to engage in combat. The game
includes more options and yet the combat seems worse. ARID locks
onto enemies to shoot them, while jumping and deploying shields to
avoid incoming fire. The developer should have avoided combat
entirely if this was the best system they could devise. The One
displays a more interesting combat mechanic, but it's only a minor
improvement.
As the end of The Fall 2:
Unbound approaches, ARID is on her way to victory, but needs
more time for a conclusion. So don't be surprised about The Fall 3,
whenever it releases.
In conclusion, The Fall
2: Unbound makes significant improvements in point and
click game-play, visual effects, and a better variety of puzzles.
The combat is either the same or worse. But the biggest shift is in
tone. The original Fall focused on ARID's internal rules,
which she altered many times to overcome difficult situations and her
own inadequacies. Unbound mostly discards this feature. The
tone of the first Fall was also more coherent and darker.
Because ARID spends most of the game cohabitating in three different
robots with diverse personalities, it loses the sometimes horrific
and macabre tone of the original. The
sequel loses
something, becoming unfocused, even though these new characters
provide unique perspectives. The Fall 2:
Unbound isn't much different
in quality from The Fall,
but the expectations are higher, and while the developer doesn't
collapse, they do stumble.
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