Somerville

68%
Game Brain Score Based on 1,206 reviews
  • story
  • gameplay
  • graphics
Somerville Game Cover
Somerville is a beautiful and smart environmental puzzler filled with great ideas and a story that grips you from start to finish.
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"Somerville is a single-player, sci-fi platformer game with a compelling story, sensational graphics, and good music. The game takes place during an alien invasion, where you play as a father searching for your missing family. Explore the aftermath of the invasion, solve puzzles, and make decisions that determine one of multiple endings."

  • PC
  • Play​station 4
  • Play​station 5
  • Steam Deck
  • Windows
  • Xbox One
  • Xbox Series X|S
  • Cloud
  • Play​Station
  • Xbox
  • Xbox Game Pass
Genres & TagsPlay Modes

Reviews

68%
Audience ScoreBased on 1,206 reviews
story214 positive mentions
optimization25 negative mentions
  • Visually stunning with breathtaking art direction and sound design.
  • Engaging story that captivates players and encourages exploration.
  • Unique gameplay mechanics that add depth to the experience.
  • Clunky controls and frustrating interactions with the environment.
  • Puzzles are often too simple and lack challenge.
  • Performance issues, including frame rate drops and bugs that disrupt gameplay.
  • story732 mentions

    The story of "Somerville" is characterized by its atmospheric and visually stunning narrative, which unfolds without dialogue, relying heavily on environmental storytelling. While many players appreciate its emotional depth and intriguing themes, some find the plot convoluted and lacking clarity, leading to confusion and frustration. Overall, the game offers a unique experience that resonates with fans of cinematic storytelling, though it may not satisfy those seeking a more straightforward narrative or engaging gameplay.

    • “The game excels with its meticulously crafted atmosphere and engaging story, particularly for fans of Spielberg's classics such as War of the Worlds and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”
    • “For such a simply told story to bring me nearly to tears, pump me full of adrenaline, and have me deeply thinking about the ending, was really impressive, and I'm very excited to see what Jumpship does next.”
    • “Somerville boasts a captivating story that kept me invested throughout my playthrough.”
    • “Great story, but sometimes it's confusing what your possibilities are, where to go or what to do, because you can do only one 'right' thing; no choices basically.”
    • “The whole story with the family and dog is so sad in the end.”
    • “You know when a writer doesn't know how to properly conclude a story and opts for a grotesque set of confusing nonsense so some people might mistake it for brilliance?”
  • gameplay431 mentions

    The gameplay of Somerville has received mixed reviews, with many players noting its simplistic mechanics and slow pacing, which can lead to frustration. While the puzzle elements are intriguing and visually appealing, they often lack depth and variety, resulting in a gameplay experience that feels flat and repetitive. Overall, the game prioritizes atmosphere and story over engaging gameplay, making it more suitable for those who appreciate narrative-driven experiences rather than traditional gameplay challenges.

    • “The puzzle mechanics, which revolve around the protagonist's powers, are also both intriguing and well-implemented.”
    • “The game has fun and unique mechanics that add onto themselves as you progress the story, adding new and fun things. The puzzles, though semi-simple, are still complex enough that you have to think about them for a moment, and the game has 5 unique endings!”
    • “The mechanics are super cool and the game keeps surprising me at every corner of this adventure.”
    • “Too slow gameplay and too vague in regards to what is happening.”
    • “The developers got the design and setting of the game down to a tee, but gameplay-wise it's quite lacking.”
    • “The gameplay is aggressively mediocre and is seriously held back by the jank geometry that makes maneuvering incredibly frustrating and confusing.”
  • graphics348 mentions

    The graphics of "Somerville" have been widely praised for their stunning visuals and unique art style, often compared to the acclaimed aesthetics of "Inside" and "Limbo." Reviewers highlight the game's immersive atmosphere, impressive sound design, and cinematic presentation, which together create a captivating experience. However, some players noted that while the visuals are exceptional, the gameplay and storytelling aspects fall short, leading to a mixed overall reception.

    • “Absolutely stunning visuals!”
    • “The visuals are fantastic and the sound matches its quality, and it must be mentioned that these two aspects together help convey power and the disparity between the weak humans and the overwhelming force of the adversaries.”
    • “The graphics are breathtaking and the story is very interesting.”
    • “Your always walking into walls and it's hard to walk through doors and the controls are a bit janky; they also just copied the graphics of Inside and Limbo (I know he was one of the developers), but still, it wasn't ready to be released. They should've done more work on it.”
    • “With respect to graphics, the gameplay is very boring; I can't understand the logic and story, and the story has a slow rhythm.”
    • “Even taking the graphics settings and resolution to their absolute lowest, the performance is still terrible. There really is no excuse for this indie game with simple graphics to run so poorly.”
  • atmosphere211 mentions

    The atmosphere of the game is widely praised for its meticulous design, stunning visuals, and immersive soundscapes, creating a captivating experience reminiscent of classics like "Inside" and "Limbo." While many players appreciate the game's artistic direction and emotional depth, some criticize its slow pacing and lack of substantial gameplay, suggesting it leans more towards an atmospheric experience than a traditional game. Overall, it is recommended for those who enjoy atmospheric storytelling and visual artistry, despite its gameplay limitations.

    • “I think Somerville is a master-class example of how to create atmosphere in a video game.”
    • “The minimalist, hand-drawn art style adds a unique touch to the game's atmosphere, creating a world that feels both bleak and beautiful simultaneously.”
    • “If you appreciated the former games for their very intense atmosphere, open-ended ominous storytelling, well-paced brooding mood, and the brilliantly placed 'what the fuuuuuu**k?!' moments, this game doesn't really deliver on any of that.”
    • “If you go into this game with the expectations of Limbo and Inside quality atmosphere, storytelling, and animations, you'll be disappointed.”
    • “The atmosphere, art style, and especially the sound design are all great, but the things that actually make a good game are very poor.”
  • music126 mentions

    The music in the game is widely praised for its emotional depth and ability to enhance the overall atmosphere, with many reviewers highlighting the beautiful soundtrack and sound design as standout features. While some noted that music is used sparingly, its impactful moments contribute significantly to the game's narrative and ambiance. Overall, the combination of music, art direction, and sound effects creates an immersive experience that resonates with players.

    • “The music adds to a suspenseful and mysterious atmosphere.”
    • “A beautiful game with interesting narrative, immersive sounds and amazing music.”
    • “The music and sound design are very notable, the world sounds alive and full, even in silent moments there is a world of sound.”
    • “The musical score is lacking presence in many scenes, especially intense or awe-inspiring moments.”
    • “Actual music is used rarely, so it stands out at the times when it does appear.”
    • “Music is very sparse and unremarkable.”
  • optimization80 mentions

    The game's optimization has been widely criticized, with many players reporting significant performance issues, including stuttering, frame drops, and freezing, even on high-end systems. While some patches have been released to address these problems, the overall consensus is that the game feels unpolished and struggles with its performance, detracting from the immersive experience. Players recommend waiting for further optimization updates before fully committing to the game.

    • “There have been a couple of patches released that have fixed the performance issues I was experiencing.”
    • “If it would be as polished and optimized as Playdead's Inside, I'd call it a masterpiece.”
    • “Overall, I give this game an 8/10 recommendation, something that's a must to pick up if it's on sale, or something that is worth getting for full price if some of the minor performance issues are fixed.”
    • “Optimization is absolute dogshit.”
    • “However the clunky controls, omnipresent stuttering, occasional game crashes and random bugs completely break the immersion and make the experience infuriating and downright unplayable at times.”
    • “For a low poly 2D walking sim, the performance is just embarrassingly bad.”
  • emotional65 mentions

    The emotional aspect of the game has received mixed reviews, with some players praising its atmospheric sound design and heartfelt moments that effectively convey the story's depth. However, many critics noted a lack of emotional connection to the characters, inconsistent storytelling, and moments where intended emotional beats fell flat, leading to a disjointed experience. Overall, while some found it to be a touching and cinematic journey, others felt it failed to deliver a cohesive emotional impact.

    • “It's a tale filled with mystery and emotional depth, making me genuinely care about the characters and their journey.”
    • “The part where you are in the survivor place is neat, it was emotional, it really made you feel the impact of the large scale alien invasion trying to kill humanity – the shrines to the dead and the music really worked here – finding the family again was heartfelt and effective.”
    • “Somerville is a truly captivating experience, one which had me hooked from its heartfelt opening right up to its suspenseful conclusion.”
  • stability34 mentions

    The game suffers from significant stability issues, including numerous bugs, glitches, and control problems that can disrupt gameplay and lead to frustrating experiences. Players have reported everything from minor visual glitches to severe performance drops, crashes, and unresponsive inputs, suggesting that the game may have benefited from additional development time to address these issues. Overall, while the visuals and sound are praised, the gameplay is marred by instability that detracts from the overall experience.

    • “From errors popping up reporting missing game assets, to random crashes, glitches that kill you for no apparent reason, and one instance of my entire computer locking up and needing a hard reset.”
    • “❌ several glitches experienced, clipping out on wall/floor/items, actions not triggering sometimes, to extreme fps drops & stutters.”
    • “Extremely buggy, inputs sometimes don't work and have to reload checkpoints occasionally because of that.”
  • grinding14 mentions

    Overall, players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious and frustrating, with simplistic puzzles and clumsy character movement contributing to a lackluster experience. While the visuals and atmosphere are praised, the gameplay mechanics and story are criticized for being repetitive and lacking depth, making the overall experience feel drawn out and unenjoyable.

    • “Lame story, tedious gameplay.”
    • “The ending(s) are pretty cool but drag on too long and repeat sections from earlier, making it more tedious than necessary.”
    • “While the visuals and the atmosphere were great, everything else was bad; controls are awful, annoying, slow, and the story is vague and meaningless, with puzzles that are either too easy or frustrating and tedious.”
  • replayability10 mentions

    Overall, the game offers limited replayability due to its short length, with some players noting the presence of five different endings. However, many reviewers suggest that the lack of extensive content means replaying the entire game is unnecessary, as they would prefer to revisit only the final chapters to explore alternative endings. As a result, purchasing the game is recommended primarily if it is on sale.

    • “Pretty cool game, can't say there's a lot of replay value though.”
    • “That said, this is a very short game, so anyone looking for extensive replayability should look elsewhere.”
    • “The short length and replayability factor makes me recommend purchasing only if on sale.”
    • “There are five different endings, so there is some replayability, but I'd probably just load up the last couple of chapters to check out the other endings rather than go through the whole game again.”
  • character development8 mentions

    Character development in Somerville is noted for its focus on individual characters, enhanced by strong design and soundtracks, despite some criticism regarding the main character's obtuse design and unnatural animations. However, the overall depth of character development is perceived as shallow, alongside the game's level design and mechanics.

    • “Somerville has a heavier sci-fi influence than Inside, and more focus on individual character development.”
    • “From character designs to the soundtracks and to the ever-so-slight world-building aspects of the game, this game does it top notch.”
    • “The main character design is obtuse and his animations are unnatural.”
    • “Shallow level design, game mechanics, and character development.”
    • “Somerville has a heavier sci-fi influence than inside, and more focus on individual character development.”
  • monetization2 mentions

    The monetization strategy has been criticized as a cash grab that exploits the positive reputation of earlier titles, leading to disappointment among players.

    • “I really feel it's a cash grab that abuses the good reputation of the previous games.”
  • humor2 mentions

    Users find humor in the quirky nature of persistent bugs that only appear on certain devices, suggesting a comical inconsistency in the game's core elements. This oddity highlights the game's unpredictable behavior, adding an unintended layer of amusement to the experience.

Positive mentions (%)Positive
Neutral mentions (%)Neutral
Negative mentions (%)Negative

Critic Reviews

64% average critic score

Buy Somerville

Play time

4hMedian play time
3hAverage play time
3-4hSpent by most gamers
*Based on 8 analyzed playthroughs

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