| Black the Fall | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer | Sand Sailor Studio |
| Publisher | Square Enix |
| Platforms | Windows PlayStation 4 Xbox One Nintendo Switch |
| Release | Windows
|
| Genre | Puzzle-platform |
| Mode | Single-player |
Black the Fall (stylized asBLAƆK THE FALL) is apuzzle-platformvideo game developed by Sand Sailor Studio and published bySquare Enix forMicrosoft Windows,PlayStation 4,Xbox One, andNintendo Switch. The player controls amachinist in adystopic world inspired by theRomanian Revolution, solving environmental puzzles and avoiding death.
Black the Fall is apuzzle platformer. Theplayer character is an unnamed machinist who escapes a surreal and mostlymonochromatic environment presented as a2.5D platform game. The player controls the machinist who walks, climbs, and uses objects to overcome obstacles and progress in the game. The machinist gains the ability to mind control other workers and later a robot to complete certain puzzles.
The machinist can die in various ways, such as being shot with machineguns, ensnared by guards, crushed by machines, burned by fire or drowned.
In a dystopiccommunist Romania, a machinist goes to work pedaling a bicycle to power a machine. He decides to escape the large factory where he encounters a TV filming propaganda, groups of people cheering on a speech ofNicolae Ceaușescu, and a depot with armored two-leggedmechas used for repression.
The machinist makes it outside, a wasteland where all trees are dead and soil is polluted by heavy factories. Here he finds a robot used to complete puzzles. After passing by an abandonedtheme park the machinist goes through a wall to a destroyed city where people are still praying in a church soon to be demolished. He finds and takes an overcrowded bus, but is soon arrested and taken to prison.
After escaping his cell, the now injured machinist wanders through an abandoned prison. He hides in amass grave to avoid capture before making it outside, where a revolution is taking place with people fighting against the government. The machinist uses a semi-broken mecha to open a hole in the city wall. The game ends with the machinist walking in front of images of the Romanian Revolution.
The game was released onSteam'searly access in 2014.[1][2] It also had aKickstarter campaign in 2014.[3]
| Aggregator | Score |
|---|---|
| Metacritic | PC: 72/100[4] PS4: 66/100[5] XONE: 68/100[6] NS: 68/100[7] |
| Publication | Score |
|---|---|
| Edge | 7/10[11] |
| Game Informer | 6/10[8] |
| IGN | 6.5/10[9] |
| VideoGamer.com | 5/10[10] |
OnMetacritic the game received "mixed or average" reviews, according.[4][5][6]
