Somerville Review
A gorgeous and cinematic depiction of War of the Worlds that's let down by it's gameplay
The lead-up to the release of Somerville has been quite the lesson in restraint. Details were extremely sparse, really only leaving us to understand it would be a Playdead-style game about a family navigating a sudden alien attack on the planet. Being a huge fan of Limbo and Inside, I couldn’t wait to see what adventure I would be taken on next. Now, having played it, I can say I am happy but hungry. Somerville scratched some itches I didn’t even know I had, but left me wanting more in terms of an overall experience. Because of how unique the experience is, it’s difficult to summarize my feelings on the game in a truly succinct manner, so let’s just break it down piece by piece.
Somerville has been described as more or less an homage to the classic story of War of the Worlds. Common people being impacted by alien civilizations we can only dream of fully understanding. The developers have said multiple times that they want the game to be experienced as blind as possible, so I will try and preserve that experience by not revealing too many key details in this review. That being said, if you’re curious about the vibe of the game, just look up titles like Limbo, Inside, and Little Nightmares. It’s essentially a “storytelling adventure”, where the gameplay is a means to an end. It exists to serve the story but also presents its own small challenge in the process.
I’ll start with the story since that is the core of this game. In these storytelling adventure-style games, I think they often live or die by the story they are trying to tell. Overall, I really enjoyed the story of Somerville. It was an interesting sci-fi tale filled with tension and intrigue. Oftentimes, I felt like I was observing the aftermath of the alien conflict that was actively taking place, while other times I felt like I was the center of everything. Even after several days removed, the game still has me thinking about where I started versus where I ended. I find myself reflecting on each moment of the journey, which in many cases was inconsequential to the big picture, but for some reason still lingers in my mind.
I will say that I do have my fair share of complaints about the story. The main character sometimes lacked what I would think are obvious emotions. A handful of heavy moments in the story felt extremely out of sync with what the character was conveying; it was almost like controlling an emotionless puppet at points. It caused some dissonance for me that definitely took me out of the moment and had me scratching my head on several occasions.
In addition to that, the story itself was very abstract at times. While it was always clear what the general plot was, it seemed hard to grasp specific details. And by the end, I was desperately trying to decipher even the smallest hint of the bigger picture. Maybe there was nothing to decipher, and what I got was all that was put in place to get. Maybe things are left intentionally abstract to allow for the player to produce their own interpretation. Either way, I didn’t fully love that aspect of that game. Primarily because the complex display of emotion from the main character only amplified the ambiguity of the end.
The one component that complements the story in a big way is the visuals. I kind of buried the lede here because this is absolutely the best part of this game. Somerville has one of the most striking and gorgeous visual presentations I’ve seen in a while, and I really can’t overstate it enough. I took dozens upon dozens of screenshots, and almost every one of them could be used as a wallpaper. Every screen captures a moment in time that depicts some aspect of the world impacted by the ongoing alien conflict. Many of the areas are quiet, deserted, and unimportant, which makes things much more interesting than you think. You’ll cling to these unimportant areas as a last line of defense between you and death, using anything and everything at your disposal to keep pushing along your journey.
Where the character’s lack of empathy often failed me, the visuals did the opposite. Even as I type, I find myself flashing back to different stills from my journey, feeling emotionally impacted by such boring and regular scenes. It’s almost a weird feeling to describe, and I’m not sure others will come away with the same impression, but I think the game is worth experiencing just for this feeling alone.
Finally, because this is a video game after all, let’s talk about the gameplay. The game introduces some very interesting mechanics to tackle a variety of different puzzles. Overall, no single puzzle was ever really all that difficult, and as I said before, often just served as a storytelling mechanism. I don’t want to spoil what you will be doing in the game, but I thought it was a clever idea that I’ve never really seen before.s
Unfortunately, the gameplay was also another overall stumble for me. Almost every time I got stuck in the game it was because I couldn’t quite understand how to do what I wanted. The game uses unique camera angles to add an extra artistic flair to the look and feel of the game, but that often meant me not understand how exactly to proceed to the next screen. In many cases, I was failing to interact with an item properly or not realizing there was an exit path right near where I was looking. It wasn’t the end of the world, but I definitely found the gameplay to interrupt the fluidity of the experience more often than not.
This might have been my hardest review to date. Going in I absolutely had some preconceived notions about what to expect, and games I was ready to compare it to before I even started, and Somerville in no way met the bar of my current favorites of a similar ilk. At the same time, it surprised and delighted me in ways I could have never predicted, and it still has me thinking days later. I’ve debated long and hard between a 7 and an 8 for this game, neither of which I think would be bad scores. When I give a game an 8, as my review guide says, I think almost anyone could find enjoyment in the game. I think Somerville falls just short of that category. At the end of the day, the striking visuals and interesting sci-fi story are packed in a short enough game that I feel like fans of this particular genre will enjoy it, but there are some clunky gameplay elements and dissonant story beats that interrupt the cadence of the game just enough that I believe will leave some players somewhat confused or frustrated. Overall, if you are even the slightest bit interested, I think you should give this game a try. It is a fantastic artistic vision come to life in an interesting story about the human condition.