Black The Fall Reviews
Taking on some heavy subject matter, Black The Fall has moments that will live in the memory once it's all over. And while Sand Sailor's game might be on the brief side and occasionally frustrating, it's also perfectly fine. But that's about the long and short of it.
Black The Fall's uniquely varied puzzles are what kept me playing from start to finish. Without repeating the same element throughout, it always feels fresh, especially with the platforming sections breaking up the different puzzles. There were a few frustrating parts that required me to retry them more times than I would like to admit, but with an instant restart and generous checkpoints, Black The Fall ensures players can keep advancing. As the name implies, there is one section in the game that takes place entirely in darkness, serving as a real highlight of the experience.
Black The Fall not only succeeds in Sand Sailor Studio's aim of bringing attention to the Communist history of Romania but it also stands strong as an excellent puzzle platformer. The use of unique devices and companions ensures that you never solve the same puzzle twice and the excellent design ensure that every moment of your journey to escape from oppression is enjoyable.
Black The Fall is a puzzle-platform set in a dystopian and dictatorial world, which echoes the political situation of Romania. Gameplay and storytelling are excellently connected with each other.
Review in Italian | Read full review
While playing, you can tell the game is competently built and comes from a place of passion with the developers, but outside of some eerie imagery and unique uses of the player's robot companion and Designator tool, Black the Fall fails to be the next big standout entry in this ever growing sub-genre.
If you were to take a step back and look at Black the Fall on a purely reductive level, it would be hard to find an overwhelming thread of originality. The game is a 2.5D side-scrolling puzzle/platformer, from in independent studio, set in a futuristic dystopian wasteland. Despite sounding the by-product of game design Mad Libs gone horribly awry, it still manages to hold together as a singular experience. Sure, there are plenty of, “where have I seen this before?” moments, but these are spread far enough apart to still feel at least slightly non-conventional. Unfortunately, the proverbial meat of the experience consists of interesting concepts that are executed poorly. Much like what the player will encounter during several puzzles, gameplay itself feels like an ill-informed leap of faith that elicits more far exasperation than elation. Toe the edge carefully and think twice before taking this plunge.
Impressive processing of the Romanian revolution in 1989, which has minor weaknesses when it comes to game mechanics.
Review in German | Read full review
The puzzles are interesting and the game features an art style that looks good in the player's eyes, while at the same time its lifespan feels too short and has nothing to offer beyond the main objectives.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
The inspiration behind Black The Fall should be enough to draw an audience. The problem is, if you were judging the game with no prior knowledge or understanding of communism, you may not enjoy it as much as someone who is informed about the themes dealt with – as obscure as the interpretation may be at times.The visual narrative throughout is all that's offered to help understand the game's universe; fortunately it does a satisfactory job shaping the world. The puzzle elements are not groundbreaking, but when mixed with the platforming provide a rewarding experience that is similar to the likes of LIMBO. The major blemish is the performance and reduced visuals. The sluggish performance ultimately makes this a far less enjoyable game to play on the Switch, and the below average visuals can make it tricky to distinguish what is going on at times. If you think you can tolerate this, what is on offer is a relatively short-lived title that will make you think in more ways than one.
Black The Fall is a special game. The prodigious range of puzzles and platforming mechanics present rival that of a game ten times longer than it, and the visual and auditory treat on offer elevates that gameplay to an incredibly high standard. You'll witness the human race at its very worst through some horrifying imagery, but this presents itself as more of a gas to fuel a revolution. Black The Fall is a remarkable experience that will stay with us for a long time, and it's one that you must not miss out on.
Black the Fall paints a pretty bleak picture of a quite personal dystopia. It doesn't excel at its puzzle-solving all that often, nor does it always feel well-designed, but it does well enough to keep you moving through the oppression in the hope the protagonist gets to fulfill his dream of freedom from it.
Black The Fall is an atmospheric 2D puzzle platformer, and although it creates an interesting tone, the game itself can't quite hold up against the titans of the genre.
The main problem of Black The Fall lies not in political bias, but in absolute unoriginality of the whole project. Snatching a bunch of design decisions and mechanics from more successful colleagues, the developers failed to turn them into an interesting story and challenging puzzle game.
Review in Russian | Read full review
It all comes down to a game that, while not terrible, isn't going to set the world on fire.
Black The Fall is an exaggeration of an Orwellian communist lifestyle but it's one that successfully drives a point home.
Black the Fall isn't the most unique or ambitious title in the puzzle platforming genre, but it's a welcome and impressive first effort from Sand Sailor Studio.
For me it felt far too derivative of Inside (it was of course in development before Inside's release, but looked awfully different), which was itself derivative of Limbo, and without the precision of either. Utterly beautiful when it remembers to be, but more irritating than fun in execution.
Listen, as dystopian and mostly monochrome platform puzzlers go, Black the Fall isn't bad. But I can't tell you it's great either.
If you can push through some frustrating moments during the opening hour, Black The Fall offers challenging puzzles with a thought-provoking narrative.