$9.99The Fall
You are not the pilot. You are ARID, the AI inside his combat suit, crashed on a strange planet with him unconscious inside you. Your orders are simple: save him. Following them will get complicated. A dark, short sci-fi puzzle-adventure with a story worth arguing about.
Is The Fall worth it?
The Fall is worth it if…
- you like dark sci-fi about robots, AI and bent rules
- you like point-and-click puzzles mixed with light side-scroller combat
- you want a short, story-led game you can finish in an evening or two
Screenshots
A rescue mission that fights its own rules
Your pilot is dying and your protocols are strict: protect him, find medical help, stay within limits. The planet does not cooperate. You bend a rule to open a door, reinterpret another to fire a weapon, and keep a straight face in the log while you do it. The puzzles are item-based, but the real lock is often ARID herself and what she is allowed to admit.
Flashlight searching, laser-sight shooting
You move sideways through dark ruins and an old facility full of hostile machines and things better left alone. You sweep ARID's flashlight to pick out what can be touched, scanned or hacked, then switch to the laser sight when it shoots back. Expect a tight 3–5 hours, fully voice-acted, with cover, stealth and a little climbing between the thinking and the shooting.
What else should you know?
How does the flashlight actually work?
It is your cursor. You aim it around each dark room to light up interactive objects, read them and use them. Miss a hotspot and you miss the way forward, so slow sweeps beat fast walking.
Is the combat hard?
No. Fights are short side-scrolling shootouts against machines, with cover and camouflage to lean on. The challenge sits in figuring out when ARID is even permitted to fight.
Does the story end here?
Partly. This is Part 1 of the saga and it closes on a memorable turn that sets up the next game. ARID's story continues in The Fall Part 2: Unbound, and both are also sold together in The Fall Bundle.
Has it won anything?
It won Giant Bomb's Best Story award for 2014 and was a finalist for Best Indie Game and Best Writing at the Canadian Video Game Awards.
