Played: Nihilumbra
I played this on an iPad, and I’m fairly sure I didn’t pay for it - it’s a game I got ages ago, and quickly abandoned (probably in favour of Saints Row, or something equally appealing to someone with no attention span). I’m glad I came back to it.
Nihilumbra is a puzzle platformer that involves painting different colours onto the world in an attempt to escape the Void and its minions. In some ways, it’s reminiscent of the game that shares a theme (The Void/Tension, by Ice-Pick Lodge), though it isn’t nearly as dark, and gets its point across mostly through text and visuals rather than first-person participation. There’s also a bit of Portal 2 in the mechanics. All that said, the way it all combines feels fresh, and develops into something else as the levels progress.
Yes, there are worlds in this game, and levels, but there’s also a story that determinedly shifts as time goes by - it’s too short to have the Angry Birds feel of endless puzzles tied together by a really loose narrative. And there’s certainly more going on than the words on-screen suggest; this whole game feels like a representation of battling depression and anxiety, and resolves it all in a way that doesn’t feel cheap or unearned. It’s careful and thoughtful in a way that a game like this doesn’t need to be.
An HD version is currently on Steam with voice narration; of course, the original is still on the iTunes app store. Check this out if you’ve got some pocket change.