Like countless other gamers, I absolutely adore high budget AAA epics. However, devoting 30+ hours to completing one can sometimes feel a bit daunting. This is where the beauty of shortform games lie. They allow you to immersive yourself with an entire adventure, without having to make as much of a commitment. Somber, the game which we will be discussing today, is a stellar example of this concept.
Heavily inspired by the likes of LIMBO and the Ori series, Somber is a 2D, puzzle-platform, Metroidvania side-scroller. It was developed by You Will Get There, a small independent studio based out of Stockholm, Sweden. Considering this is their first official release, it’s commendable what they’ve been able to accomplish.
A tale as old as time.
Somber’s narrative pays homage to the Grimm fairy tales of old. It chronicles the journey of a peculiar creature, aptly nicknamed “The Hero”, who, at the behest of the King, has been tasked with stopping the sinister Witch. Being The Hero, they immediately embark on their quest, vowing in the process to “make things right.”
To be completely honest, the overarching premise of Somber isn’t exactly revolutionary. Yes, the concept of good vs evil is a tried and tested classic, and it certainly has its place. However, in many cases, it often comes across as primitive and clichéd. Thankfully, Somber, whilst having its own fair share of tropes, does manage to slightly break out of this categorisation. And it does so by making one very important amendment.
The developers, in a stroke of genius, decided to keep the internal structure of the story open to interpretation. For example, you could take it at face value as ‘the unlikely Hero overcoming the odds.’ Or, like me, you might perceive the entire narrative as a metaphor for anti- industrialisation. Regardless of the drawn conclusion, the speculative nature of this plot was a much-welcomed change of pace.
Shockingly good gameplay.
On the gameplay front, Somber blends tight platforming action, with light puzzle elements. This generally consists of making precise jumps and dashes, all while avoiding obstacles such as spikes, enemies, and disappearing platforms. Some sequences do require a bit more patience than others, but on the whole, they aren’t too challenging. What they are though is satisfying, and, for a lack of a better term, moreish.
Mercifully, the controls, specifically on a gamepad, are both functional and responsive. This means that you don’t have to worry about the game working against you, and can instead solely focus on your execution. If you do happen to fail a jump, you’ll instantly be able to try again thanks to the abundance of checkpoints littered throughout Gloom. Massive double thumbs up for this.
As this is a Metroidvania game, you can expect to explore a semi-open world. I say semi-open as some areas aren’t accessible until you complete the previous ones. Technically, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it’s something to keep in mind if you like free reign exploration.
Variety is the spice of life.
As you progress through Somber, you’ll be granted a plethora of unique abilities to help level the playing field. For instance, Magic Missiles allows you to fire bolts of energy at your enemies, temporarily eliminating them. Whereas skills like Fling and Wall Jump allow you to leap from catapults, and bounce off of walls respectively.
Besides the unlockable abilities, there are also a couple of permeants passive powerups as well. These come in the form of attribute modifiers which either boost your Magic Missile’s damage output, or improve your Wall Jump’s mastery. They are typically hidden in secret areas, which makes it rather easy to unknowingly walk by them. Fortunately, you should be able to remedy any accidental oversights by exploring each corridor on the map.
Altogether, the addition of these upgrades, especially the unique abilities, prevented Somber’s gameplay loop from becoming stale. Best of all though, the manner in which they were incorporated was both diverse, and, most importantly, entertaining.
Melancholy graphics.
For the vast majority of the game, Somber’s varying art mediums complement each other quite well. The foregrounds, which are approached in a blackened silhouette style, mix together effortlessly with the coloured ink backdrops. It’s a striking, yet oddly beautiful direction, that I feel is best described as mesmerising.
On top of this, Somber also features a vibrant and alluring colour palette. Ingeniously, this has been woven directly into the core identity of the game, and is often used to further drive the anti-industrial motions of the narrative. Assuming this was done intentionally, it’s a brilliant representation of visual storytelling by the developers.
The environments themselves are expertly hand drawn, and radiate with the same sort of exuberant energy that you’d find in a Tim Burton movie. For example, one minute you may be absorbing an intricately planned landscape, only to be blindsided with abstract eldritch imagery moments later. This disparity is cool in of itself, but it also turned out to be incredibly useful in navigating the game’s open world.
All in all, I have nothing bad to say about Somber’s in the graphics department. Every detail from the character and background designs, to the VFX and animations, have been integrated phenomenally. If the developers could retain this measure of quality on all of their future releases, then they’d give companies like Neotro Inc a run for their money.
Harmless audio design.
Somber’s OST contains a collection of tracks that are innately simplistic, but nonetheless effective in highlighting the games prevailing themes. It achieves this by intertwining ambient style instrumentation, with spacious and open production values. In a way, it’s fairly reminiscent to Journey, though, admittedly, I didn’t find it nearly as memorable. Still, it is a competently arranged soundtrack, and it adequately achieves its desired goals.
In a similar capacity to the OST, the SFX in Somber are inherently minimalistic. As a result, I don’t have a whole lot to say about the sound design. Simply put, they remained largely innocuous throughout my playthrough, which is exactly what you want for this sort of game.
Conclusion
In summary, Somber is an incredibly short title, but one that successfully delivers an enjoyable experience. The gameplay, which conforms around well-paced platforming action, is both responsive, and surprisingly varied. A similar sentiment spills over onto the narrative, which I found to be rather engaging, though, at times, somewhat clichéd. Musically, the soundtrack is well put together and wholly inoffensive, but doesn’t do anything special to warrant being remembered. However, the same cannot be said about Somber’s artistic prowess, which is smartly woven into the core ideology of the game, and is downright gorgeous to look at. Unfortunately, Somber is currently priced at just under £6 as of writing this. While that isn’t an exuberant amount of money, it feels a little overpriced for how much time you’ll spend with it. As such, I’d recommend waiting until this goes on sale before considering buying a copy of your own.
