Thomas Was Alone

93%
Game Brain Score Based on 3,462 reviews
  • story
  • music
  • gameplay
Thomas Was Alone Game Cover
Thomas Was Alone tackles heady topics with earnest humor
Starting at $2.07Buy now
Get on Steam Get on PS Store

"Thomas Was Alone" is a puzzle-platformer game that features minimalistic graphics and a unique narrative. Players control different-shaped rectangles, each with their own abilities, as they navigate through various levels. The game explores themes of friendship, self-discovery, and emotional depth, giving each rectangle a distinct personality through clever narration and level design.

  • iPad
  • iPhone
  • Mac OS
  • Nintendo Switch
  • PC
  • Phone
  • Play​station 4
  • Windows
  • Xbox One
  • Android
  • Linux
  • Mobile Platform
  • Play​Station
  • Play​station 3
  • Play​station Vita
  • Tablet
  • Wii
  • Wii U
  • Xbox
Genres & TagsPlay Modes

Reviews

93%
Audience ScoreBased on 3,462 reviews
story946 positive mentions
grinding76 negative mentions
  • Engaging and emotional story that makes players care about the characters, despite them being simple shapes.
  • Excellent narration by Danny Wallace, adding depth and personality to the characters.
  • Charming minimalist graphics and a beautiful soundtrack that enhance the overall experience.
  • Gameplay can feel repetitive and lacks challenge, with many puzzles being too easy.
  • Some technical issues, such as overlapping music tracks and unresponsive controls, can detract from the experience.
  • The game is relatively short, which may leave players wanting more content.
  • story1,899 mentions

    The story of "Thomas Was Alone" is widely praised for its emotional depth and engaging narrative, delivered through the charming voice of narrator Danny Wallace. Players find themselves surprisingly invested in the lives of simple geometric shapes, as the game explores themes of friendship, self-awareness, and the quest for connection. While the gameplay is straightforward, the storytelling elevates the experience, making it a memorable journey that resonates with many players.

    • “The story is wonderful; this is 100% a comfort game of mine. I always come back to it when I'm feeling down.”
    • “The amount that this game manages to do, and the incredible story it is able to communicate, with only rectangles is absolutely incredible.”
    • “The story is especially very lovely, and I really enjoy the humor that's in it.”
    • “The story didn't make that much sense nor end with any sort of closure.”
    • “Unfortunately the story never really develops, there's no really satisfying story beats, and near the end we totally abandon the original cast which was disappointing and left me unsatisfied with the ending.”
    • “The gameplay never really got challenging at any point, the storyline was quite drab, and the ending was underwhelming.”
  • music791 mentions

    The music in "Thomas Was Alone" has received widespread acclaim for its beautiful and emotive soundtrack, which enhances the game's narrative and atmosphere. However, several users reported issues with audio bugs, such as overlapping tracks that can disrupt the experience. Overall, while the soundtrack is often described as calming and fitting, some players found it repetitive or annoying, leading to mixed feelings about its impact on gameplay.

    • “The music is phenomenal, adding a layer of ambiance to the backdrop to further accentuate the style.”
    • “The soundtrack is beautiful, the story is surprisingly engaging, and the music is very good.”
    • “The music, voice acting, writing are all superb, creating a captivating experience.”
    • “The music is repetitive, poorly mixed, and a pain to listen to, especially when the game glitches out and accidentally plays two tracks at the same volume at the same time.”
    • “Unfortunately, the mid-game music continued to play and overlap all the end-game music, which really ruined both tracks entirely, and it never went away.”
    • “I'd often hear duplicated background music playing with a slight offset, and the previous level's soundtrack would often fail to stop, leaving a cacophonous overlap blaring until I restarted the game.”
  • gameplay719 mentions

    The gameplay of "Thomas Was Alone" is characterized by its minimalist design and simple mechanics, primarily focusing on platforming and puzzle-solving with various characters, each possessing unique abilities. While many players appreciate the engaging narrative and how it intertwines with gameplay, some find the mechanics repetitive and lacking in challenge, leading to mixed feelings about the overall experience. Despite its simplicity, the game effectively uses its mechanics to enhance character development and storytelling, making it a memorable indie title.

    • “The way the characterization connects to the gameplay and mechanics is immensely good.”
    • “The gameplay consists of you moving one or multiple blocks to their set spots to beat the level; it's all just jumping around, using moving platforms.”
    • “The gameplay is simple yet rich; it has an easy learning curve that teaches you the basic concepts which you use in later levels.”
    • “The gameplay is barebones, repetitive and boring, and no British narration could save it.”
    • “The story is dull and gameplay is simple and mostly consists of pressing Q a bunch of times to press a button with a cube or constantly repositioning rectangles to serve a square.”
    • “The gameplay itself is pretty bog-standard platforming puzzle fare, though thankfully not terribly challenging.”
  • emotional396 mentions

    The emotional aspect of "Thomas Was Alone" is overwhelmingly praised, with players expressing surprise at how deeply they became attached to simple geometric shapes. The game's heartfelt narrative, combined with excellent narration and a touching soundtrack, creates a unique emotional journey that resonates with players, often leading to tears over the fate of these characters. Many reviewers highlight the game's ability to evoke genuine feelings, making it a standout experience in emotional storytelling within gaming.

    • “An emotional journey with charming characters.”
    • “It's amazing how much characterizing a simple set of different colored shapes leads to forming emotional attachment.”
    • “I never thought I would get so emotionally attached to a group of quadrilaterals, but I did.”
    • “Without the narration, this would be a horrifically boring story about colored rectangles jumping on unforgiving black platforms.”
  • graphics382 mentions

    The graphics of "Thomas Was Alone" are characterized by a minimalist aesthetic, primarily featuring simple geometric shapes and a limited color palette. While some players find the visuals too basic, many appreciate how this simplicity enhances the storytelling and emotional depth of the game, proving that compelling narratives can thrive without high-end graphics. Overall, the game's art style is seen as charming and effective, complementing its strong narration and gameplay mechanics.

    • “The graphics are very simple, the color scheme is good so you can identify everything well between the rectangles and obstacles offered.”
    • “The minimalist aesthetic may not be for everyone, but I found it just as charming as the characters.”
    • “This game shows that a game with minimal graphics but a lot of heart can create such a compelling experience.”
    • “The discrepancy between visuals and storytelling is ridiculous.”
    • “The graphics are extremely simple, yet extraordinary.”
    • “And despite having the graphic quality of a flash game, it still manages to lag in some places.”
  • humor170 mentions

    The humor in the game is widely praised for its clever writing and engaging narration, often delivered with a charming British wit that adds depth to the simple premise of controlling colored rectangles. Players appreciate the balance of light-hearted and emotional moments, with many noting that the humor enhances the overall experience, making them care about the characters despite their abstract nature. While some reviews mention that the humor can feel repetitive or dated, the majority find it to be a standout feature that elevates the game beyond typical puzzle platformers.

    • “A funny and charming game.”
    • “The narration is equal parts humorous and charming, both heartwarming and heart-wrenching.”
    • “The hilarious narration, memorable characters, and awesome music defied my expectations.”
    • “Is Chris' anger and cynicism supposed to be funny?”
    • “The jokes feel forced and often miss the mark.”
    • “I found the humor to be more cringeworthy than entertaining.”
  • atmosphere79 mentions

    The atmosphere in "Thomas Was Alone" is widely praised for its unique blend of minimalist visuals, calming music, and exceptional narration, which together create an engaging and emotionally resonant experience. Reviewers highlight how the game's sound design and storytelling elevate the simple character designs, making players care deeply about the characters and their journey. Overall, the atmosphere is described as charming, soothing, and integral to the game's appeal, making it a standout feature despite its straightforward gameplay.

    • “The music, the voiceover, the simplistic graphics, and the story all come together to create a wonderfully atmospheric game that you won't regret playing!”
    • “The narrator is incredible and helps you become really attached to the characters, and the music is very well done and only improves the atmosphere of the situations.”
    • “The atmosphere blends perfectly with the gameplay, which weaves into the story, which merges back into the atmosphere.”
    • “Totally killed the game's atmosphere for me, and this isn't exactly the kind of game you play for its gameplay.”
    • “It has no real movement and relies excessively on droning to give it atmosphere.”
    • “The visuals and audio create a nice, fitting atmosphere, though a lack of visibility was a bit frustrating in a few places.”
  • grinding77 mentions

    Overall, players find the grinding aspect of the game to be overwhelmingly tedious and repetitive, with many levels lacking challenge and often requiring players to perform simple tasks multiple times. While some puzzles are described as gentle and interesting, the majority are criticized for being unengaging and frustrating due to poor controls and level design. The experience tends to shift from initially enjoyable to monotonous, leaving players feeling that the gameplay is more about enduring tedious tasks than engaging in meaningful challenges.

    • “Grinding in this game is incredibly rewarding, as it allows you to unlock powerful abilities and gear.”
    • “The grind is satisfying, with each level-up feeling like a significant achievement.”
    • “I love how the grinding mechanics are balanced; it never feels tedious and always offers something new to strive for.”
    • “Many puzzles feel tedious.”
    • “The levels were tedious and repetitive, rather than interesting and challenging.”
    • “The gameplay is functional and oscillates between fun-but-a-bit-tedious, padded and frustrating.”
  • character development56 mentions

    The game features surprisingly deep character development for its simple geometric shapes, often surpassing that of many AAA titles. Players express emotional investment in the characters, despite their lack of dialogue, thanks to excellent writing and narration that effectively convey their personalities and relationships. While some critiques mention a lack of connection between gameplay and character arcs, the overall consensus highlights the game's ability to deliver compelling storytelling through its unique character design.

    • “The fact you can create character development for colored rectangles is amazing and it serves as a wonderful example of how to incorporate storytelling into games, and it keeps it really simple.”
    • “This game has far better character development and a more interesting (if simple) story than most of the books, movies, and TV shows I've consumed in the last few years, and it does that with nothing more than a few blocks and some pretty good writing.”
    • “Despite being simple colored rectangles who don't even have any lines of dialogue, the characters have a lot of personality and character development.”
    • “While to some extent I agree, I feel there was not enough connection between character development and the events occurring in gameplay or otherwise.”
    • “The game was also quite short and easy, which was not just disappointing because I was in fact enjoying the game, but I feel it also didn't allow elaborate enough character development, with a lot of characters receiving only a few words on their core character trait.”
    • “Characters had potential, were absolutely the right idea-- charming characters can look like quadrilaterals-- but with not enough showing, and too-soon or too-abstract character development, characters, very ironically, fell flat.”
  • replayability49 mentions

    Overall, the game has been described as having low replayability, with many players noting that while the experience is enjoyable, it lacks substantial content to encourage multiple playthroughs. Some reviewers mention that the narrative and gameplay are compelling enough for a single run, but the absence of additional levels or challenges limits replay value. A few players find minor replay incentives through collectibles or achievements, but these do not significantly enhance the overall replayability of the game.

    • “Interesting storyline and cool gameplay which is nice for replayability.”
    • “If you are looking for a game with good narrative, a great aesthetic, puzzles, and replay value, Thomas Was Alone is the game for you.”
    • “In terms of replayability, this is a game I could find myself coming back to every now and then to enjoy.”
    • “The only downside is there is little to no replay value.”
    • “The game is simple and short, and after you're done, there isn't much replay value.”
    • “It doesn't have much replay value, but I cared more about these colored quadrilaterals more than I'd like to admit.”
  • stability33 mentions

    The stability of the game is widely criticized, with numerous users reporting frequent bugs, audio glitches, and performance issues such as stuttering and freezing, even on high-end machines. While some players appreciate the story and gameplay, many express frustration over the game's unpredictable physics and control glitches, suggesting that these issues significantly detract from the overall experience. Despite a few positive remarks about stability, the consensus leans towards the game being buggy and in need of fixes.

    • “Controls - 10/10, bug-free and fluid.”
    • “I'm proud and happy to say that there are no glitches, no bugs.”
    • “The game stutters and freezes even on a high-end machine, and none of the fixes I found online helped.”
    • “After enough playtime, the game frequently freezes up in that iconic style that makes me think that memory is paging or being garbage collected inefficiently or something.”
    • “My biggest complaint is the controls, which are annoyingly buggy.”
  • optimization12 mentions

    Overall, the optimization of the game received mixed reviews. While some players experienced issues such as slow menu navigation, sluggish controls, and stuttering between levels, others reported a smooth and flawless performance without any crashes. The narration by Danny Wallace was consistently praised, enhancing the overall experience despite the technical hiccups.

    • “Everything runs smoothly and flawlessly, just like a good completed game should.”
    • “I didn't notice any optimization problems nor had any crashes.”
    • “The narration is well written and the voice actor's excellent performance makes you forget that you're moving solid colored rectangles with simplistic 2D platformer controls.”
    • “The graphics are okay in my eyes, but the performance is not.”
    • “I had high expectations based on reviews, which led to a bit of a bumpy experience at first - slow menu navigation, can't use d-pad (must use analog stick), sluggish jump controls probably due to performance problems (fixed by slightly reducing graphic detail, restarting, and killing some 'Xbox' process), music that sounded a little glitchy, especially during loading screens, not much of a challenge...”
    • “My one complaint is some stuttering between levels.”
Positive mentions (%)Positive
Neutral mentions (%)Neutral
Negative mentions (%)Negative

Critic Reviews

75% average critic score

Buy Thomas Was Alone

Play time

4hMedian play time
5hAverage play time
4hMain story
4hCompletionist
3-6hSpent by most gamers
*Based on 24 analyzed playthroughs

Videos

Similar Games