Somerville review

Sci-fi narrative adventure game Somerville launches for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC today, and also drops straight into Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass. Here are our thoughts on Jumpship's debut title.

Somerville piles on the intrigue from the off. In an early scene reminiscent of M. Night Shyamalan’s sci-fi flick Signs, we, as a young child whose parents have nodded off on the sofa, toddle around a dark living room while an ominous banging and shuffling emanates from outside the farmhouse. Captivated by the noise, we go in search of answers, clumsily making our way through the house before clambering up to the kitchen window, where the shuffling and chirping from an otherworldly creature continues. Somerville wants you to open this window and risk inviting whatever is skulking around outside into your home. The sound, visuals, and atmosphere here make for a tense and unnerving opening experience that tugs at your curiosity to keep you moving forward. This level of intrigue is continuous throughout the game, but ultimately, outside of some excellent visuals and wonderful sound design, Somerville falls short in several areas.

Developed by Jumpship, Somerville is a narrative adventure that boasts a producer credit from ex-Playdead CEO and co-founder Dino Patti. Comparisons were made early doors to Patti’s previous puzzle platformers, Inside and Limbo, but Somerville is a narrative adventure first and foremost. While there might be some shared DNA in terms of the lack of dialogue and combat, Jumpship’s debut game mainly focuses on narrative, which, for me, didn’t quite land.

Somerville follows the story of a family who has been caught up in the middle of an alien invasion. Aside from your brief time as the toddler, you play as the father who, after an accident that transfers a supernatural power into his right arm, is presumed dead, leaving the wife and toddler to flee. Sometime after that night, the father is awoken by the strange energy now coursing through his body, and along with his trusty canine companion, he sets out to find his wife and son. While it’s not the most novel opening to a game, it certainly had me asking questions: Where is my family? Who are these alien invaders? What are these vast other-worldly obelisks poking down from the sky like stalactites?

Stepping out into Somerville’s world, it quickly became clear just how much effort and painstaking detail Jumpship have put into crafting a convincing post-apocalyptic UK. The visuals and art style here are excellent, and it really feels as if an alien invasion has occurred in some rural part of the UK. The world is seemingly devoid of life aside from curious orb-like creatures who zip around hoovering up strange alien matter and the dangling obelisks that suddenly open up to cast a striking pink beam of light that tracks across the land to find and destroy anything left alive. In terms of atmosphere and world-building, Jumpship has done an excellent job here. A standout area is the abandoned Glastonbury-like festival, where the flapping of hundreds of empty tents and empty main stage create an eerie feeling. The excellent sound design also plays a huge part in making this world believable, and again, Jumpship has nailed it. Playing with headphones, the noise can get so immense and daunting that it’s really quite thrilling.

From a gameplay perspective, Somerville is simple. It’s mainly a case of following the route through each environment and completing the odd puzzle to get you into the next area. It’s a slow ride, with the character, at times, moving painfully slow to the point of annoyance. This is exaggerated when you come to certain areas that aren’t clear in where you’re supposed to go. Walking a long way off slowly into the distance only to find it’s the wrong direction and then slowly having to walk back because the area isn’t well signposted is a pain. The journey through each environment is broken up with some light puzzle solving, which revolves around the supernatural power you pick up. When combined with a light source, it allows you to form a beam that melts and dissolves (and later solidifies) alien debris and substances blocking your path. Things start off simple with a light attached to a cord that only stretches so far, but as the game progresses, the puzzles get a little more complex, if only slightly. One puzzle that I did particularly enjoy involved physics and solidifying some of the alien substance in a minecart to open a door, and while it did get the cogs whirring in the noggin for a bit, this and possibly one other were the only puzzles that challenged. Although these puzzles aren’t the toughest to figure out, they do at least break up the traversal, offering something a little different.

However, my biggest issue with Somerville is its story and characters. For a game that relies so heavily on narrative with the lack of challenging puzzles, combat, and platforming, it really does make you work hard to understand what’s going on. The emotional beats never land because of a lack of connection with the characters, and nothing is explained. I won't go into too much detail here as I don't want to spoil anything, but I had real issues with the second half of the narrative. There is definitely a decent sci-fi tale somewhere here, but everything is so ambiguous — it's clearly been designed for people to ponder and debate in forums on the internet, but I don’t think Somerville gives up enough to the player to earn that. Even after multiple playthroughs (there are no branching paths or choices to make other than at the very end, as far as I can tell), the story still didn’t gel with me, and I ultimately felt unrewarded for my time, which is a shame because Somerville has so much going for it outside of the plot. I think the story will be somewhat divisive among players; some will love it, and others will be a bit down on it, like myself. Thankfully, with Somerville launching into Xbox Game Pass, subscribers can explore this one without stumping up the cash up front, making it an easy game to dip into.

I also encountered numerous bugs during my time with Somerville that really distracted from the overall experience. A playthrough only took me around five hours, but too often I would find myself coming up against some sort of bug, like my character or a companion needed for a puzzle getting stuck in the environment. I also had my character slip into infinite falling animation loops and came across a strange issue on all of my playthroughs where the controller just wouldn’t stop vibrating at full pelt. All of these required either quitting out of the game completely or restarting from a checkpoint. Of course, these, along with several other minor bugs (including a funny-but-odd issue that saw the toddler jittering around furiously after using the torch), will probably be fixed with updates down the line, but it was nonetheless disappointing to experience.

As for the Somerville achievements, the list wasn’t live at the time of review, so it’s hard to say how difficult the completion will be. As far as I can tell, the only story-related achievements I unlocked were for completing various endings. Thankfully, there is a chapter select so you can grab an ending achievement easily if you missed it. Other achievements that I unlocked were for completing miscellaneous tasks and for finding all the orb aliens hidden in the world.

Summary

Overall, Somerville has a fantastic and intriguing world that’s begging to be explored from the off. Wonderful art and sound design compounded with excellent character animations really bring this narrative adventure to life, but a smattering of bugs, lacklustre puzzle elements, and an ambiguous story that left me feeling unrewarded after posing so many initial questions, really hampered the experience.

* Sean spent around 12 hours avoiding the pink gaze of the strange alien obelisk floating in the sky, unlocking seven achievements in the process. A review copy was provided by the publisher and was played on an Xbox Series X.

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Review

Written by Sean Carey

With a deep love for Xbox and achievements, Sean has committed to playing the best RPGs, racing games, and first-person shooters Xbox Game Pass and his precious free time will allow. Prior to joining TrueAchievements, Sean gained a degree in journalism from Solent University.