It could be said that gaming is an art form and to me, it is. It is also a form of stress relief, entertainment and cerebral fulfilment. Stepping into the lives of incredible people and having agency over how events unfold is something we don’t really see anywhere else. So gaming could be any one of these things to someone, all of the above or even something else entirely. The point is; I don’t always want to be blowing stuff up (as fun as that is), building vast civilisations or throwing myself into the void of space. Sometimes I just want to chill, take my time and sink into something a bit different.

War of the Worlds

Somerville is brought to us from Jumpship Studio, which was co-founded by Dino Patti who was once a member of the team at Playdead. So for fans of the games Limbo and Inside you might know he helped co-develop these indie two classics. The influences are there right from the beginning and yet Somerville certainly carves its own path into our imagination. 

The game starts far above a car, weaving its way down a darkened forest road to a farmhouse out in the sticks. A piano delivering single notes helps set the somewhat sombre mood perfectly. As the car pulls into the yard, dusk is giving out its last light before darkness comes. As the family snooze on the sofa you immediately feel that something is not quite right, the shroud of gloom around them making every shadow seem threatening. The TV screen casts long pillars of colour over the room as the toddler wakes and you gain control. In a scene that really did remind me of War of the Worlds, you start to see unnatural light flickering through the windows and investigating with the toddler acts as a tutorial of sorts.

Very soon the father is roused and you take direct control, going about your jobs until all hell breaks loose. As explosions rock the house you rush outside to see large metallic shards hovering in the skyline and an aerial battle is raging with the would-be invaders. Pretty soon smaller shards start to rain down on the area, destroying the car and forcing the family into the basement. After touching the hand of a futuristic pilot who crashes into your home, you are knocked unconscious. You wake and it is clear much time has passed, only your faithful doggo is now by your side and strange blue light is emanating from your arm. From here you must make sense of what is happening and find out where your family have disappeared to.

Another World

Sometime in 1991, I was wandering around a car boot sale with my parents (a common weekend activity thanks to my mum's obsession with other people's crap). Two things kept me sane at these events, burger vans and game stalls. Searching through these ancient devices called floppy discs, I happened across a game called Another World. Once home I booted up my Atari ST and experienced one of the best games I’d ever seen. The game used beautiful cell-shaded animation that I just hadn’t seen before and I was absolutely enthralled. It is Another World that I would say Somerville reminds me of the most.

Like Another World, you start off in a familiar setting before the wheel comes off and you are pitched head first down the rabbit hole. The man you control finds his planet has been invaded by a hostile race that seems to be metallic in form. The strange metal that now covers the landscape reminded me of the red weed in War of the Worlds, seemingly turning our world into theirs. 

Fire and Ice

After your encounter with the glowing space man you can now use the blue energy in your arm and when channelled through a light source, it melts the red metal like fire melts ice. This is one of the fundamental mechanics used in the game and finding ways to clear a path can be really engaging.  At some point, you also gain the ability to solidify the metallic blue water and this then leads to some very interesting situations. There is also a physical element to some of these puzzles, like using the curve of a tree to raise some lights to a useful height. I was also really happy with some of the bigger challenges, like the abandoned music stage and a prop UFO.

As someone who has a real phobia of deep water, bizarrely I love swimming sections in gaming. Maybe it is knowing that I am ultimately safe that lets me enjoy the act of swimming in a deep body of water. I think the swimming sections in Somerville are excellent and add a welcome change from walking. They also look incredible with lots of debris and particulates illuminated in the murky depths. There were some sections when I was literally holding my breath as I just managed to reach the next air pocket.

Unfinished Symphony

I absolutely love this game both in the way it builds atmosphere and how it feeds the imagination with some wonderful set pieces. However, there are a few rough edges here and there. It might sound like a trifling issue but I feel the lack of interaction with your faithful hound was a real missed opportunity. There were sections where we were reunited and I just wanted to give him a big hug. Unfortunately, there is just no option to pet him at all, which seems a bizarre omission. I think if you are going to opt for speechless storytelling, these little details are essential.

Given the wonderful setting the game is based in I was also a little disappointed with how long we spend underground in the caves and mines. This was another design choice that feeds my theory that the developers were running out of steam towards the end. As you push towards the final chapter there is also just way too much ‘melt the metal’ going on and I feel like this was there to pad the last chapter out. Finally, while I won't go into specifics, the last scene was an arbitrary way to wrap things up and landed a little flat. I think with the ideas that were being thrown around, the game needed another few chapters to give them time to mature.

Is it PC?

Somerville is a gorgeous game that is a real credit to the artists and animators working on it. Yes, there are some puzzles where the animations don’t quite work but overall I love the way the game moves. Your dog companion, for example, follows you around like a real dog would, barking at threats and looking inquisitively at his master. 

The world uses cell shading to amazing effect, sometimes a very simple wash of colour and other times we see incredibly detailed objects. The way lighting has been used deserves special mention, like the first time you overload a lamp and the whole room is swathed in flickering radiance. Distant fires showing scenes of extinguished resistance pepper the horizon and purple beams penetrate the trees searching for stray humans. It is worth noting that the performance of Somerville was subpar throughout. While my 3080ti was able to power through at 60-90 fps, there are clearly improvements to be made in this area. 

The camera work is mostly a success in the way it shows the action from some very interesting angles. Sometimes panning right back to show a broad cityscape and others closing right into a claustrophobic cave shaft. Unfortunately, due to the nature of games design, there are times the camera doesn’t allow you to see the way forward and I think this could have been worked on a little more. I did try to use keyboard when first starting the game but after a minute reached for my controller. I am a huge advocate of mouse and keyboard but sometimes the analogue sticks on a controller are the way to go. 

When telling a story without any voice work it is on the animators and artists to convey what is happening. In this sense, they do an admirable job until the muddled end suffers due to many unanswered questions still hanging. With that said, I think voiceovers would have changed the whole tone of the story, so with all things considered I think this was the way to go. As for the sound design overall, I like what there is but a richer set of sounds could have really helped give some scenes an extra dimension.

Conclusion 

As is often the case I start my review as a game releases. I will say, I’ve been quite surprised by the rocky reception of Somerville by critics and gamers alike. The biggest issue seems to have been clumsy controls and some of the lacklustre puzzles on offer. I have since been back and replayed the game, just for a sense check and to see if I encountered any other issues. I do agree that there could have been more range in the type of puzzles and the controls are not super intuitive. I didn’t find any problems using levers but did run into a few bugs that required me to restart that section. 

For me, the biggest criticism I will give in regards to Somerville is that it fails to deliver on the fantastic build-up in the first half of the game. The small orbs that follow you around as you leave your house for example, why are they helping you? How did our own soldiers gain advanced tech prior to the invasion? What happened after you were knocked unconscious? The beginning builds this wonderful sense of mystery and foreboding, but the game then seems to buckle under the weight of itself as the last hour throws too many ideas into the fold. Ultimately I wish the developers had spent a bit more time adding different mechanics that would have carried the story over the finish line. 

In spite of the issues I encountered, I did really enjoy my time with Somerville. I also hope Jumpship are not chastened by the underwhelming reception of their game, I think they have shown a good talent here for world-building. With a bit of spit and polish, Somerville could still be as good as those trailers hinted. For now, I can still recommend you pick this game up at some point, maybe in a sale and knowing the issues going in.