Somerville Review (Gibbon)
I feel bad writing a negative review because I thought Inside and Limbo were great and this game really shows that Jumpship has potential. But If you buy this game because you enjoyed Inside or Limbo you're going to be pleased with the art style and disappointed in everything else.
TL;DR the movement is frustrating, the puzzles are not really even puzzles, and as great as the art style is, the game has very few moments that allow it to shine.
Opting for 3d movement instead of 2d creates plenty of opportunities for jerky immersion-breaking movement and collisions without adding anything really substantial save for being able to move into occasional deep cinematic backdrops. And the movement speed is in almost all circumstances way too slow. There are scenes where you ought to be running for your life to dodge being spotted and the only option you have is a slow shuffle. Matter of fact with the exception of 2 or 3 very short sequences the whole game is spent at a slow shuffle.
To make matters worse, in addition to the slow movement speed an overwhelming amount of the environments involve these unnecessarily drawn out paths through them. There are plenty to list but a good example of this is an instance where you walk through a grocery story and are forced to zig zag through every single aisle and do a 5 second animation to move a shelf 3 times, and another 5 second animation to pull open the sliding glass doors. Meanwhile at the end of each aisle is a box blocking your way, but the boxes are the same size as the ones you climb over all throughout the game. I understand that the quality comes from experiencing the environment but when done in this way it seems forced and unnecessary. This is the case for many of the puzzles, they are often as simple as turning on a light to get through somewhere, and all turning the light on requires is climbing a ladder to get to the plug and jumping back down to the switch. I get that this isn't trying to be a high level puzzle game but when the "puzzles" are just walking to the end of the room and back 2x they feel more like inconveniences than gameplay.
Which brings me to my third point. Despite the great style of the game and the opportunity to use the 3d movement to move into cinematic depths, an overwhelming amount of the game is spent in a damn claustrophobic mine shaft that does nothing for the story or building the setting. The worlds under alien attack on the surface and you're just crawling (or shuffling) through dark nondescript stone caverns for what felt like at least 50% of the game (not including (spoiler?) the excruciatingly long sections in the late game where you are walking through grey illusory stone walls over and over again). Don't get me wrong, the game is beautiful at times and sets up a couple of great locations and sequences, but Limbo and especially inside had a way of making you feel like you were in this unique environment the whole time, while Somerville puts some significant gaps between those moments.
There's more to be said but these are the core issues that jump out after just completing the game. Took 3 hours.
So yea, you move noticeably too slow, and spend enormous amounts of time looking at grey story-agnostic stone walls, with the non-walking gameplay mostly being confined to avoiding timed spotlights and moving lamps around. Atmosphere shines at times and when given the opportunity the visuals show great skill, so I am hopeful for the next game. Giving more attention to gamplay and memorable environments seems like something Jumpship could easily do. If this is paired with the ambition to bring emotional depth and go beyond 2d design then I suspect what is to come will be great.