Stories from the Backlog: Close to the Sun
Slow walking through a cool ship
The idea for this series sprang up from the concept of a bookworm’s to-read pile or a gamer’s to-play list. Things that one has already paid for but has not taken the time to experience. I was thinking about it the other day as I looked for something to play in my Steam library. It occurred to me that it might be interesting to dive into a few of these and make some comments. I’ll put together some observations with a focus on story (I’m a fiction writer, after all) and maybe why they sat in my backlog for so long.
I’ll probably keep the entries short. These will be posted more or less when I get done with something and feel it worth writing about. If this series appeals to readers, then maybe I’ll make them more frequently.
In the middle of writing this post, I discovered that
has a series based on a similar idea. Dammit, that man really has thought of everything. Welp, that means I’ll just have to do my best to differentiate and avoid overlap.Without further ado, here is the first entry.
Close to the Sun
Close to the Sun is a first-person puzzle slash walking simulator slash horror survival game developed by Storm in a Teacup; I would link to their company website, but it appears to have been overtaken by malware. Set in 1897, the game blends science fiction and horror and takes place on a fictional ship called the Helios. The premise is that the ship, commissioned by Nikola Tesla, is a sort of floating think tank where top scientists can conduct research to their heart’s content without government or corporate interference. And it sports a snazzy art deco aesthetic with a heaping spoonful of steampunk. It treads the same ground as the Bioshock series of games in regards to background and setting.
The player takes on the role of Rose Archer, an intrepid journalist who heads to the Helios after receiving a letter from her younger sister who also happens to be one of the top physicists aboard the ship. Of course, shortly after arriving you can tell that Things Have Gone Wrong. Now, I did say that horror was one of the genres, and it makes itself known fairly quickly. Gore and disturbing imagery abound as you move through the ship.
Here is the trailer for it (blood and gore warning):
The game has some high points and low points. First the high points. The environment design is some of the best I’ve seen in a game. I’m a sucker for the art deco aesthetic, and this game has it in spades. My favorite area was the theater. They captured the look and feel of those grand old opera houses that are works of art unto themselves.
These lavish environments combined with well-executed lighting and the developer’s attention to detail go a long way is setting a strong mood throughout the game. On occasion, though, they went a bit overboard on the disturbing imagery.
The voice acting is top-notch. Every actor brought their A-game, and the characters come to life in ways that I wished other, more high-profile games could (cough Elder Scrolls cough). I was especially impressed with Emily Moment, the actress that portrayed Rose. And honestly, she did a lot of heavy lifting in terms of my engagement with the game. The dialogue writing was decent if a bit anachronistic. The interactions between Rose and the various characters were handled well. I just wished it was in service to a well-executed overarching story.
This brings me to the low points. The controls feel sluggish, especially when compared with most first-person games. This is especially apparent during the moments when you had to run from something; the tedium overtook any tension you were supposed to feel, exacerbated by sluggish controls.
What puzzles were there tended to be simplistic and a bit too easy, even late-game. Maybe they were meant to be, but if that’s the case, it begs the question of why they were even there. Ironically, my favorite puzzle (minor spoiler) is one that you don’t actually solve as part of the game; at one point you comes across a room with coded messages and just enough clues to decode them. I spent more time than I care to admit decrypting these messages, but they turned out to be easter eggs with zero impact on game progression or even the lore.
Lastly, the story was a bit of a letdown, especially the way it ended. It had some interesting ideas and cool concepts, but the game doesn’t follow through on the best of them. Without spoiling anything, it feels as though they either planned DLC to finish the story or had a different original ending, but scrapped it to finish the game. This means a fair number of unresolved story threads. Now, I don’t mind a good cliffhanger, but when the central mystery is left open, it leaves me unsatisfied.
This game, if I remember right, was a free one that I snagged on Epic purely because I liked the look of it. In reading about it, I saw comparisons with survival horror games like Amnesia and Five Nights at Freddy’s which is why it sat on my digital shelf collecting digital dust. I’m not really a fan of horror games, especially those where you’re just running away and hiding the whole time. After playing it, I’d say it’s really more like Firewatch with Bioshock’s aesthetic and a bit of survival horror thrown in (those terrible “run” segments I mentioned above). At about 3 to 4 hours, the game is short, so it doesn’t overstay its welcome. That said, an extra 10 to 20 minutes clearing some loose ends would have made me feel better about it.
Ultimately, I had an okay time but certainly won’t revisit this one in the future.
For a better walking simulator, check out the aforementioned Firewatch or Tacoma.
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