Review: The Fall

Posted by Curtis H on July 15th, 2015 | 1 Comment | Tags: The Fall

What makes The Fall so interesting is that it dives head first into an AI point-of-view and what it means to follow specific rules. (Is an AI faulty if it breaks a rule?) It demonstrates the struggle and sense of morality an AI might have when faced with the need to bend/break some rules in order to follow others. Not only is this a key point of the story being told, but it’s also a major aspect of the gameplay. The Fall is a pretty old school adventure game in which, as the AI, you need to find ways to bend the rules in your favor. Consistently you have to test your limits in the name of following the most important command given to you.

That command is simply to protect the human that lives inside of the combat suit that this particular AI is part of. The Fall starts with the human severely injured and unconscious after taking a steep fall into an unknown region. From there the AI must control the suit and find suitable medical equipment to save its human passenger. As the player you’re given direct control over the suit and a flashlight to explore the environment. Much like any adventure game you’ll come across items that can be used to solve specific puzzles and in some cases you’ll need to rely on some abstract logic to progress. For the most part the puzzles in The Fall make sense and play well into the concept of an AI being unable to break rules, but there are a couple instances where the logic feels a bit too much like old school adventure games.

Aside from puzzles you’ll also acquire a gun that’ll be needed for defense later in the game. There are a handful of segments in which you’ll participate in shootouts with robots. In these moments you can take cover to avoid oncoming fire and use your gun to easily take out each threat one-by-one. I could do without these moments, but luckily they’re just a very small part in an otherwise really cool game.

The Fall is positioned as the first in a three part story. Without mentioning specifics I’ll just say that the game is really well written, intriguing from start to finish, and it features some great voice acting. While it’s certainly the start of a larger story I think The Fall does a fantastic job of setting up a really interesting world and ending on a crazy/satisfying conclusion. The ‘To Be Continued’ only makes the wait for Part 2 that much harder.

A copy of this game was provided by the publisher for review purposes. For more info on our review policy click here.