IRIS.FALL Review for Steam

Imagine: you are a young girl who has a nightmare about your black cat, distorted puppets, and a theater that overwhelms you so much that you wake up. You think that it’s over, but your cat is in front of you now, staring as an invitation to follow it as it runs to another direction. You follow. This cat seems to have answers about the dream, and perhaps even answers about yourself.

This is the world of Iris, the young female protagonist in Iris.Fall. Using the core theme of light and shadows, NEXT Studios has developed an ambitious puzzle, adventure game that features a young girl finding the dark truth behind the mysterious theater.

The gameplay for Iris.Fall is similar to many point and click adventure games with 3D and 2D elements depending if Iris is in the light (3D) or in the shadows (2D). There are mostly mechanical puzzles in the game as well as a few pattern guessing puzzles. Not all puzzles are the same, which I appreciate the variety of puzzles even if they are technically in the same genre. The variety of puzzles offered in the game allows the player to not fall into boredom with repetition, which sometimes happens in adventure games. However, when it is the same puzzle, it begins with an easier version of the puzzle to understand the pattern and mechanics; then usually after solving it two of the same but more complicated patterns follow after. By doing the puzzles this way, frustration is less likely to happen, especially if the player is unfamiliar with mechanic puzzles or the genre overall.

The aesthetics of the game are breathtaking with the monochromatic fairytale theme. Every room is reactive to Iris’s presence when the player walks toward furniture or items. The reactiveness of the theater and each rooms gives the theater a personality as every room has its own theme as well. Iris.Fall reminds me a lot of Alice in Wonderland except with a darker theme. Iris follows a black cat around while Alice follows a white rabbit in their respective worlds. The cut scenes of the game gives room for the narrative as well as aesthetic appreciation that is shown in a different medium. Although there is no dialogue and the narrative can be confusing, the beauty of the game speaks for itself in many levels beyond just playing the game for the narrative or even just playing the game for the puzzles that allows the player to be fully immersed in both.

There are a few flaws to the gameplay in particular. There were a few puzzles that had small glitches whether certain mechanics like light was in the wrong spot or the puzzle was not reacting to the click command, a common problem that happens with point and click genres. Since the game is also in 3D, moving around with only W, S, A, and D (the up, down, and side movements) was sometimes awkward if you wanted Iris to move diagonally. Lastly, in the game settings, there was an option to have the hints on or off. The game default setting is to keep them on, but I did not understand where the hints came from when I decided to turn it off to see the difference. This might also be a mistake on my part since I played most of the game with the hints on. Out of all the small flaws in the game, the biggest one was definitely the glitches which happened from time to time.

Looking at Iris.Fall as a whole, it is a beautiful game. The aesthetic and mechanics of the game go well together. Even if the plot can be a little confusing at first, it allows the player to be fully immersed into the game with figuring out every room and finding pieces of the truth about the mysterious theater and its connection to young Iris.

Rating: 8/10

Check Out the Iris.Fall Gameplay Trailer:

Iris.Fall will be released for PC via Steam on December 7, 2018.