Still There is a point and click puzzle game, and some of its puzzles are fucking HARD, so hard, so, SO hard. In the game, you play as Karl, and he’s in oooooooooouter spaaaaaaaaaace, in what he calls a space lighthouse. He’s just there to do routine shit on this little mini space station, and by mini I mean it’s just him and it’s just one large circular room with each section being for a different thing. He has his little companion, Gorky the annoying AI assclown, he’s great, I hate him.
Well, every day you have tasks to do and problems to solve to stay alive. You have a manual to check to help you solve stuff and Gorky giving you some hints too. All of this is basic information that is kind of hard to grasp from the manual, Gorky is a bit better though. But if you look at the manual long enough you’ll eventually understand a good chunk of it eventually. It goes from checking oxygen to dealing with both cooling and electrical systems.
The story I don’t want to ruin because the game takes about five to six hours to beat, and outside of puzzle aspects, it’s all narrative with choices for conversations you can have with both Gorky and people you talk to via the radio that I won’t spoil. However, I will state the writing is fantastic. Gorky is a cheeky asshole and I love him for it, he jumps between being a dick and being so childish and cute it’s insane. Karl is dealing with some shit and you see him actually working towards dealing with it. Dialogue choices, while they bring you to the same solution, they give different flavor text which is fun to read as it gives more or less information on the characters.
Lastly, I will point out the game is pretty cute and fun, but near the end, shit gets dark, real dark. And not in a horror way, it’s in a ‘my heart, you just broke my fucking heart’ way I cried for the last like full chapter of the game, maybe even a good chunk of the chapter before it even. I’m not talking tiny sniffles and blinking tears away, no, I’m talking ugly crying with snot and everything. I would have liked a level select added to the game though as I missed I think three achievements in it, cause honestly I don’t really want to play through it again since I don’t want to cry about it again, and I’m sure I will. It’s so damn miserably sad. I’m done, I don’t want to talk about it anymore, it’s making me tear up a bit.
Still There was developed by Ghost Shark
$15
A review copy of the game was provided by the publishers, Iceberg Interactive.
darkmikasonfire awards Still There The Indie Gamer Team Seal of Approval.
Indie Gamer Team 