My intentions are podcast.
Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re going to be talking about The Fall. Despite being almost ten years old, I’d consider this to be part of the new wave of adventure games, ones that seek to capture some of the elements of the classic games but without the more obtuse elements. The Fall mostly manages this, using a 2D sidescrolling style which limits the amount of screen searching and navigation you have to do to find all the pieces to each of the puzzles. It’s not without its stumbling points, but for the most part the puzzles are well designed and placed very smoothly into the difficulty curve. Slightly more questionably, it also includes combat mechanics and some exceedingly light platforming, but the mechanic set is well rounded and it’s easy to overlook some of the less polished aspects. The kicker, though, is that what you didn’t know you were actually here for is the narrative. The game is shockingly well written, both for the genre and medium as well as the time period, doing a great job of communicating its themes without dumbing them down for the player to understand. It’s a sci-fi narrative focused around AI that feels very focused, and honestly ahead of its time, and it’s well worth playing just for the story alone. We’re going to be talking about the more misguided elements of the puzzles and mechanic systems, how impressed we are that we cared about the characters at all, and ways to improve coffee…puzzles.
Thank you for joining us again this week! This is a game that had made it onto the Mystery May list for how long we’ve known about it, but having now played it, it’s surprising how little it shows its age. Certainly in some mechanical ways it feels old, but we were impressed by its maturity. Let us know what you thought in the comments section or over on our Discord! Next time, we’re doing what may be our first ever Christmas special, and talking about Cthulhu Saves Christmas, so we hope you’re in the spirit for it then.