Etherborn is the first indie game funded by 20 Century Fox’s game division, FoxNext Games
Etherborn
PRANCING ON THE CEILING ALEX SPENCER
PUBLISHER ALTERED MATTER / DEVELOPER ALTERED MATTER / RELEASE DATE OUT NOW / COST £14.24/$16.99
or perhaps to evolution, or maybe to
prenatal development in the womb.
The first level is called ‘Birth’, after
all, and you exit through an arch that
is rather... let’s say ‘anatomical’ in
shape. Meanwhile, a disembodied
voice echoes from the darkness,
speaking exclusively in gnomic riddles.
To pick an example from the game’s
opening: “Listen, at last, to what
has always existed and was never
there.” It’s all either very profound or
complete nonsense.
Etherborn doesn’t just want
you stroking your chin, though.
Like any good puzzle game, it also
wants you scratching your head in
pleasant confusion. Its big idea is
warping gravity – find a smooth slope
connecting two surfaces and you can
simply stroll onto what used to be the
ceiling, the camera whipping round
to clarify which way is now up. Slip off
the edge, and you can – as pop singer
Vanessa Carlton once posited – fall
into the sky.Have you ever stared
at a piece of art
on a gallery wall,
trying to figure out
what it all means,
until eventually
you just walk away and accept that
you’re just never going to truly ‘get’
it? Etherborn is kind of like that, but
with physics puzzles. Everything about
its presentation is quintessentially
‘indie game’, from the Monument
Valley-style architecture to the
twinkly music and soft pastel colours.
And, of course, how weird it all is.
You play a spindly, faceless human
being, their body translucent so you
can see all the blood vessels and
organs inside – but somehow it’s
beautiful rather than creepy. And
that’s just about everything we can
tell you about the story. Not for fear of
spoilers, but because we’re honestly
not sure what’s going on.
There’s imagery which could be
alluding to the biblical Garden Of Eden,
It’s like Braid with spatial rather
than time manipulation. Like a fully
three-dimensional Fez. Like the Wii’s
Super Mario Galaxy crossed with a
book of surrealist poetry. Except,
sadly, it’s nowhere near as good as
any of those games. And most of
what holds Etherborn back is how
your amazing gravity-defying skills are
actually applied.Nothing special
For all the game’s trappings, the way
levels are structured is considerably
more mundane. You locate, figure
out how to reach, and then collect a
set of glowing polyhedrons – before
plugging them into the matching slots
to summon a new chunk of level. Yep,
they’re just fancy keycards.
Each puzzle has a single set
solution, and finding it often involves
a fair amount of trial and error. Walk
this way, over and under and twisting
back on yourself, until you hit a brick
wall, then go a different way. In theshort
cutWHAT IS IT?
Just your standard
gravity-defying
platformer with a see-
through protagonist.
Yeah, another one.
WHAT’S IT LIKE?
If TS Eliot’s The Waste
Land had a jumping
puzzle at the end of
every stanza.
WHO’S IT FOR?
People who wear
berets, small round
glasses and a beard
they’ve grown
specifically for
stroking.084 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE
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