Review | Game review: escape a communist hellhole in Black the Fall
A mix of stealth game and physics puzzler, BtF is nothing very new but it’s well executed and great to look at
Black the Fall
Sand Sailor Studio
3.5 stars
For all its drawbacks as a system of governance, you have to admit that communism, with its rich history and Big Brother overtones, makes for an ideal video game setting.
Two-fisted shooters that let you blow the brains out of evil reds? Check. Sneaky super-spy stealth games in which you set up both sides against each other? Been there, played that. Even communist-friendly versions of city- and world-builders are out there.
All of that makes Black the Fall (for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC) easy to enjoy from the get-go. It’s a moody little thriller in which you’re a machinist trying to escape from a communist country that’s closely based on Ceausescu’s Romania – in fact, the developers called on their own experiences of living through that horrifying regime.
Of course, liberties have been taken to permit the necessary sci-fi elements – gargantuan kill-bots, laser-controlled robot dogs – but that’s beside the point. The point is that its bleak, seedy world is perversely beautiful, a shadowy setting filled with blacks, whites and lots of heavy reds, the ideal background for a puzzle platformer.
