izigame.me

Fort Solis, has many good things going on for it in the beginning. There's an alluring sci-fi mystery. A cast of very talented actors filling in the main roles. Unreal engine 5 promising new gen graphics and an amazing visual experience. Also a very short but at the same time, slow burn suspense story, building the game world and characters around you, promising.... things will happen....ohh.
From there nothing happens.
First, the cast. They are great, as expected. Troy Baker showing his acting chops, Roger Clark as well (Arthur Morgan) being out of the west and into space, and Julia Brown although very reserved at first, does come on her own towards the end, showing she can go all the way when the situation calls for it. They are great, but there's a lot of good supporting characters as well.
The presentation of the game, with Unreal engine 5, looks very good most of the time. But it lacks somehow in certain areas. Some shadows look completely broken, while others look completely fine. This is a weird contrast which distracts you from time to time. The game being Unreal 5 supposedly has some kind of internal Ray Tracing (Lumen) but it is not clear how it is used in game.
Our playable character Jack moves like a tank (in a bad way). Slow and not very maneuverable. In principle, it is fine for the narrative, since this is a slow-paced story. But it is annoying for exploration and looking at things, he is slow to turn, and lacks some basic functions like zooming in on objects (maybe I'm being picky here) but since the game has great art direction and good graphics, you do want to see things more closely sometimes.
The story is... what? A million question marks in the end? And at the same time... not really? because maybe there isn't anything else to add, and the story is really that thin? Don’t get me wrong, I love a good slow burn, as long as things happen at some point… which, if we are talking about some tense scenes here and there you will find that on Solis, but aside from that… nothing going on here with the story. In a way, (and depending on how you look at it) the story ends as it begins. You do know in the end what happened at Fort Solis... but if that is all there is, then this was just a 15 minute short story with no development, no second layer of nothing to discover. Just, one thing and then another, and that's it.
It wouldn't be that bad or disappointing if the narrative wouldn't be so long winded and slow just to arrive to the same thing... nothing to say, nothing new, just more of the same, an extended showcasing of madness.
Again, in a way, everything is explained, but at the same time very limited on that explanation of what the issue was, and… not much sustance. And if I sound like I'm just repeating myself not saying anything new, is because the plot is very easy to spoil with just a few lines. Just like that.
Maybe I'm just trying to give you a sense of how the game feels after you played it.
This uneventful review ©2024 Aleena.