Close to the Sun Reviews
If you’re looking for a narrative-focused horror game which isn’t ‘too’ scary, Close to the Sun is for you. Visually the game looks beautiful, despite the piles of body parts and blood-soaked walls, with the Helios’ decorations being a brilliant replication of Art Deco interior design with a hint of Steampunk engineering. The story will have you hooked, as you go out of your way to fill in the blanks and find all of the hidden collectables, bringing you to a conclusion which I hope spawns a sequel at some point in the future. Despite the issues, which I mentioned in my review, the overall experience is one which shouldn’t be missed regardless of whatever platform you prefer to play on.
Close to the Sun wants to be Big Important Art, but it tries so hard to be Big Important Art that it undercuts itself.
I think it’s a very bold, brave, and intelligent game that smartly weaves its plot together through a mix of dialogue, environment, and suspense. Storm in a Teacup are one of the most promising and talented new studios out there and while this game isn’t perfect, there’s enough in here to convince me of their vision and ambitions. I cannot wait to see what they do next.
"The only problem with the experience, is the performance, a problem I can’t look past, and a problem I hope the developers do acknowledge through an upcoming update, or at least give an explanation as to why their game was limited to a single core on a CPU. If they can fix that, then this game has it all, and it’s 10-hour adventure is – regardless – a quite remarkable one that uses Greek mythos as its foundation."
Maybe the most damning thing I can say about Close to the Sun is that the main story it’s so interested in telling—the story that everything else on the Helios funnels you back toward—just isn’t the least bit surprising. All of it borrows pretty heavily from the BioShock playbook, and all of the plot points it trots out have been done better (and far more shockingly) elsewhere. The portrait of Tesla it presents seems conflicted—and I hoped Close to the Sun would attempt to close the distance between the egomania that would prompt a man to build statues of himself and the gentle humanity Tesla shows elsewhere — but the game doesn’t do anything to dig into those contradictions. That’s the consequence of all those chase sequences. Close to the Sun just doesn’t have the time to dig into anything. It’s got somewhere else to be.
Close to the Sun is a hugely ambitious title from such a small team. It doesn’t quite stick the landing but it’s a (mostly) great experience and one that sci-fi horror fans will enjoy.
Close to the Sun's art direction, themes, and basic ideas are going to draw many in, but once the story gets started and the gameplay fails to advance, they'll be trying to jump overboard.
Close To The Sun is a walking simulator game with interesting storytelling. The story is interesting but that's all
Review in Turkish | Read full review
Grounded in the limbo between reality and fantasy, Close to the Sun is an intriguing, and at times terrifying, walk through a world where Nikola Tesla’s ideas and nightmares came to life.
Close to the Sun is a spectacle piece for the explorative player that is well worth sinking time and money into. Despite the horror label, the game is not so scary that it cannot be enjoyed by everyone. The game may be short with a frustrating conclusion but this should not deter players from picking up this title. From highly detailed environments to smooth gameplay, Close to the Sun is a short, but unique experience that deserves players attention.
Close to the Sun is just not that great of a game. The low price certainly works in the game's favor, but even then, it is difficult to recommend without considerable hesitation. The setting, the concepts, and the ideas presented are all fantastic, but the actual execution, the simplified gameplay, and the lack of resolution on multiple plot points left me very disappointed.
If you like story-driven suspenseful horror games which aren’t too scary, Close to the Sun is perfect for you. With it’s beautiful Art Deco design, horrific scenes of gore and brutality, incredible inventions from Nikola Tesla, and an engaging storyline, you’ll be hooked from the moment you step aboard the Helios. I found some of the narrative predictable and muddy towards the final chapters, but the overall experience was very enjoyable and entertaining. If you go into the game thinking it’s going to be like Bioshock, you’ll be disappointed, be open-minded and you’ll enjoy it a lot more.
I was intrigued about Close to the Sun from the very first time that I saw the trailer and the original concept art. The comparisons with Bioshock, which can never be a bad thing, are many. The ocean setting, the art deco style, the communication via radio and the scientific element of the story. However, this is where the comparisons stop. Close to the Sun is a game that deserves its own identity and will offer a different experience to Bioshock. Read on to find out about my time aboard the Helios.
So all in all Storm In A Teacup have done a great job with Close To The Sun. Its story driven action, combined with puzzle solving and the unnerving fact that you can’t defend yourself, all gets packaged up into a nice neat bundle of joy to play through. Close To The Sun thoroughly deserves its Thumb Culture Gold Award