The Fall

The Fall pushes itself when it comes to providing a story worth sticking around for, but its excellent puzzle design and captivating setting is what’ll keep you anticipating the next installment. Over the Moon have begun something very special with The Fall and you’ll be looking out for ARID again even months after you finish this intriguing opening act.

Beginning as a universally relatable fantasy about overcoming red tape, The Fall winds up as a game about identity and civil rights without ever talking too much or treading too clumsily. The fact that this is the first episode of a larger game only makes its climax more thrilling. Just as there’s a sense that your powwers are building as you play through The Fall, there’s a feeling that developer Over the Moon’s powers are building too. We like who they’re becoming.

The story and writing was excellent and once I finally got used to all the poor design decisions I found out that the game was actually quite fun. Nevertheless, the controls remain an unintuitive mess (with both keyboard and gamepad), the Limbo shadow world-style easily hides important information or items, and if you get stuck there’s no help at all and nothing you can do other than boringly using everything on everything or venturing out of the game to find a walkthrough. The first half was so frustrating I almost cried, and the second half was actually pretty entertaining.