SCHiM - Review
There have been many games over the years that have played with shadows, most of which have you using them to spot enemies, but there has never been one where you are the shadow, until now. SCHiM is a 3D platformer that makes use of a 2D flat visual art style, complete with a minimalist design.
Here you are a shadow, or a spirit if you will, who is on the hunt for the boy they belong to. In order to get back to them you need to jump from shadow to shadow in the environment. If you step out of the shadows for too long then its not good for you, thankfully the world the game is set in, lets you explore the areas of each lively level.
Early on in the game, you traverse through the shadows but always tethered to a boy, who you see grow from toddler to teen, to graduating university, and so on. By the time this human reaches young adulthood, your tether to him gets detached, in which your aim of the rest of the game is to get back to your human host. In this world, every object has a Schim. Through each level, there are lost Schimmen who have lost their tether to their objects that are scattered in the environment. So while you’re trying to make your way back to your human, it also encourages players to explore each level to help these lost spirits/souls. Players will have to jump from shadow to shadow to interact with an object or rotate the fixed cameras to get a new perspective of the surroundings. Additionally as you get deeper into the game, the challenge and distance to get to your host seems to increase a little more most of the time. At times, finding these objects are highlighted in a specific colour, which is themed with each level, but at other times there are only a small amount of highlighted colours used.
The controls to the game feels good, in that jumping from shadow to shadow has a bit of weight to it, depending on the direction you’re moving towards, but also how long you press the jump button for. With the limitation of only having one extra short jump after bouncing out of an object’s shadow really does give the game a little bit of a challenge at times. And not only that, but the game has integrated weather such as flashes of lightning, people walking or moving cars that may skew silhouette when movement is added with a fixed lightsource from a street lamp. This just clearly shows the thought process put through to give players a little challenge to get from A to B.
SCHiM’s visual design is one that would impress and attract designers. The worlds have been created using a palette of only four colours in each level, which changes when you move onto the next. In addition, the linework for the lively environment looks amazing and very clear as to what each object is, what each human is in terms of age (child or adult), what they’re wearing and so on. This really is storytelling from visuals, and without the use of any dialogue. The two-man indie developer really have made an interactive work of art.
Much like its beautiful visuals, SCHiM is a basic platformer that leaves you feeling as though you’re wanting more, or missing something very early on. In this case, it hits its peak very early in the game. Once you’ve completed the tutorial levels, you will have already mastered the puzzle mechanics of jumping from shadow to shadow, rotating the camera to get different angles and perspectives. By the time the main visual narrative opens up, you’ll start to feel as though you’re repeating the same thing taught in the tutorial, for the rest of the game with very little progress for a challenge. And yes, there are some elements which make it a little interesting at times due to the environment, it all starts to feel a little the same.
That said, SCHiM doesn’t feel as though it’s meant to be an intense game, but one that’s relaxed and lets players take time out from the realities of their everyday lives. With that said, SCHiM is a perfect game to be played on handheld devices. It just feels as though it fits perfectly. One thing that’s certain is if a young indie team of two are able to create a visual identity/style, and publish a game like SCHiM, whatever they have coming up next will be worth checking out, without a shadow of a doubt.
The Score
7.0
Review code provided by Ewoud & Nils
The Pros
Easy to play that you can pick up at any time
A amazing visual artistic style, with fun environmental challenges at times
The Cons
Hits its peak very early on in the game
The puzzle or platformer isn’t extremely challenging once out of the tutorial levels
