The Shattering is a first person walking sim, with some puzzle elements, all draped in a fairly white atmosphere. Lots of games deal with shadow and darkness, this game decided fuck that and made things white for the most part, which is an interesting design choice if nothing else. You play as John, a man walking through his broken memories with his psychologist Dr. Who Cares, (actually I think it’s Dr. Richard but… I can’t be sure anymore.)
You walk through various levels of John’s life and solve some fairly basic puzzles along the way, such as picking up nine photos and interacting with a few items, bam done with that one. Most of the game just requires you to interact with specific objects to move on, but there are a handful of other things you can interact with to get more of a feel for everything.
I don’t really wanna tell you too much about the story so I’ll simplify it, you are fucked up due to injury and the doctor is trying to help you figure out why without just outright telling you. You have options of what to say during various sections of the game to help flesh out the character, and some of them even lead to putting you into one of two different endings.
Graphically, the game is fairly pretty with all the white everywhere it was interesting and it worked fairly well. However, nothing in the game is super amazing looking, though it’s not ugly either, it’s middle ground graphically even though it requires a decent computer to play it. The story is pretty good and even after beating it twice and getting both endings, I still don’t really understand the ending to the game, which I think is done on purpose or maybe I’m a dunce [EDITOR’S NOTE: You’re totally a dunce.], I’m not sure which. John doesn’t talk, however the doctor does and his voice is very psychologist-y. He’s the major talker in this, but you do get some other characters that talk too during the six levels of the game, which are a prologue, four acts, and an epilogue.
I thought the game was fairly pretty, and the story was compelling enough to bring me to the end of the game, not just once, but both times, and I got every steam achievement in the game. I have to say I actually rather enjoyed this one, though please keep in mind that I’m biased. I actually enjoy walking sims and I know lots of people don’t so keep that in mind. This isn’t going to make you like walking sims.
The Shattering was developed by Super Sexy Software.
Point of Sale: Steam.
$20
A review copy of the game was provided by the devs.
darkmikasonfire awards The Shattering the Indie Gamer Team Seal of Approval.
Indie Gamer Team 