Somerville Review

"Blasts from the Sky"

Campaign

November 23, 2022 at 8:10pm
By Jason Stettner

This is a narrative driven adventure along the lines of say Limbo or Inside. It follows a father that’s trying to find his family while dealing with a War of the Worlds type scenario. The family is just relaxing after a day of doing whatever, and suddenly they’re thrust into the middle of a war scenario. There’s also a dog, it’s sort of just there and periodically is part of the story.

It’s weird, as that dog is really loyal but doesn’t seem to serve much narrative purpose. That aside, it’s a linear setup where players move through the environment handling the situations in front of them. You’re not typically doing direct conflict, more moving the world about using unique pulsing powers and solving the puzzles ahead.

It’s not terribly long being a few hours or so in length, but alas it does feel a bit stretched out towards the end with certain segments being re-used. I also found the ending sort of sequence setup to be rather strange as the game really doesn’t give you much of an indication as to what that aspect means. Not in some deeper meaning sort of thing, but it feels like more will just be completely puzzled by what the goal is there. There are some side critters you might come across, that might be a hint for you.

Gameplay

As mentioned this is a linear experience where you’re guiding an individual along a preset path. It’s got a bit of a 3D styling to it that does at times make some interactions awkward. You’re not really doing too much being sort of on a guided journey but you do need to sometimes move things.

I did find a point where one of the AI got stuck, but for the most part it all seemed to run well. It just seemed some elements weren’t handled the best in terms of polish. The entire experience on Xbox Series X was full of screen tearing which definitely wasn’t too great to take in.

It was targeting a 4k resolution at 60fps, at the same time it didn’t really seem demanding enough to have such problems. The backdrops were aesthetically gorgeous, some really neat long drawn spots. It’s just, rather simplistic in terms of puzzles and world design, so I do wish it had run better.

The Conclusion

Somerville is an intriguing, sometimes thought provoking venture that while initially mysterious ultimately ends up being a bit bland dragged down by a lack of polish and performance issues. I had fun playing this and I hope over time they smooth out the experience.

It’s a simplistic play, but I enjoyed my run of it. I do wish it was more interesting, such as with the concepts behind Limbo and Inside. That being said, it was neat enough to keep my interest. I did get a tad bored though when some recycling set in, but I think they’ve put together a decent enough narrative adventure.

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Somerville Review on Xbox Series X
Review Code Provided by Plan of Attack

Rating Overall: 7.0