56 / wfmag.cc
ReviewRated
You’re never alone when you’ve got your inner demons
the surface. With the dark comes a huge sea
monster, circling like a hungry shark and turning
each dip into a panicked dash. In the light, you
take your time to look around, enjoy the warmth,
and seek out collectables.
The crux is how quickly conditions can change.
At any moment, day can return to night, or
the sea can rise or sink to reconstruct the
landscape, often bringing forth a new monster.
With these shifts, the town has an almost
dreamlike ability to rework itself and reveal new
locations in disorientating loops. You travel far
away into a structure that you hadn’t noticed
before, only for it to be swallowed again and
lost forever as you exit, somehow depositing
you back at a central landmark. It’s impossible
to gauge the scale of the place, or whether
the structures themselves are moving under
the waves.Info
ReviewGENRE
Narrative
adventure
FORMAT
PS4 (tested) / PC
/ XBO
DEVELOPER
Jo-Mei Games
PUBLISHER
EA
PRICE
£15.99
RELEASE
Out nowSea of Solitude
ReviewRated
REVIEWED BY
Jon Bailesefore you start Sea of Solitude, it
tells you its aims in no uncertain
terms. A message from creator
Cornelia Geppert tells you that
this is “a personal project about
loneliness” and “what it means to be human
and live with all of life’s ups and downs.” It’s an
apt introduction to a game that’s committed to
confronting sensitive topics, but spells them out
a little too bluntly.
The first thing you hear as the prologue
begins is the main character, a young woman
named Kay, lamenting her sense of isolation,
despite the friends and family around her.
Then she wakes up in a tiny boat, alone in a vast
expanse of water beneath a black sky, the rain
battering down. Progress through this reflection
of Kay’s mental state is all about light. You soon
gain the ability to shoot flares to pinpoint the
way forward, and clear areas of ‘corruption’ to
bathe your surroundings in sunshine.
Around and beneath you, always partially
submerged, is a desolate town, and before
long you’re jumping ashore to clamber over its
pastel apartment blocks and hotels. As the boat
is unable to access some areas, you’ll have to
swim between the concrete peaks jutting aboveHIGHLIGHT
In one sequence, Kay is
forced to climb the inside of
a crumbling tower, the light
pulsing on and off as air vents
flare up with the breath of
an angry monster. It’s Sea of
Solitude’s most traditionally
game-like section, but the
simple idea of being repelled
and plunged into darkness as
you struggle to ascend makes
it the most evocative.
At times a mysterious force
parts the water and holds it
in place, enabling you to
explore at ground level.B