Black the Fall

I’m not really sure what the make of this one. I smashed through the game in one sitting, mainly because it was not that fun and I just wanted it to be over. Even after exposing myself to the whole thing without any breaks, I’m still left wondering what the hell it was all about.

In Black the Fall, you play as some kind of escapee running out of a prison away from what I can only describe as thinly veiled communist Russians… or maybe that’s the trick? I’m supposed to think that, but that’s not the case at all and only serves to highlight my own prejudices. Frankly I don’t care, because the game is so boring, it doesn’t deserve to have any subliminal messaging or hidden agendas.

In terms of gameplay, it’s a side-scroller following you as you move right through an array of puzzles and obstacles while trying to avoid being shot or recaptured by the dudes dressed in black and red. There are some decent puzzles along the way but there are also more convoluted ones and some areas that I thought the solution was either down right unfair in terms of how shoddy and untrustworthy the gameplay is, or I just got it wrong and glitched my way to success.

The sound effects and graphics aren’t great and it does have a very depressing feel to the environment which is supported by the music. This is another reason why I just wanted my playthrough to be over – who wants to be depressed when playing games?

Achievements – 1,000 Points – 14 Achievements

Making it through to the end will nab four of the achievements with nine being related to collectibles and one really weird and equally horrible one at the beginning of the game, which I’ll mention first.

There is an exercise bike that’s connected to a machine for the first puzzle but to get the first achievement, you have to ride the bike for around 15 minutes until the machine clicks over 1,000 times. The game is short as it is, so this just feels like a mechanic to drag it out further. The counter on the machine ticks down from 20,000 but I can’t imagine anyone tested it out to see if anything happens if it reaches zero.

The other nine appear to be for finding some random hidden people or things throughout the game. I’m not sure if this meant to add to the story or something but it just felt like more contrived bullshit to me – the horrors of this dystopian, non-sensical world we’ve created.

Downloadable Content – N/A

A short review of a short game with a short achievement list. All I can really say is that it’s not worth it for the price. It’ll set you back £11.99 for the privilege (I bought it on sale). Sure, it’s easy but it’s an uninteresting story with redone gameplay that doesn’t offer the player anything.