Game: Another Sight
Genre: Puzzle Adventure
System: Nintendo Switch (also on PS4, Xbox and Steam)
Developer|Publisher: Lunar Great Wall Studios | Toplitz Productions
Price: USA $39.99| UK £35.99| € 39,99
Age Rating: EU 7+| USA E
Release Date: 18th June 2019
Review code kindly provided by Toplitz Productions
Another Sight a surreal fantasy adventure with steampunk elements set in 1899 towards the end of the Victoria era, in London.
Finding the way out
Meet Kit, an inquisitive teenager, who loses her sight after the under-construction London Underground tunnel she was exploring collapses. And meet Hodge, a mysterious ginger cat she meets in the darkness of the underground.
Together they team up for an adventure. They have to find the way out of the underground and find Kit’s Father. Kit and Hodge explore a surreal fantasy world both together and apart, using each of their unique abilities to tackle environments and solve intriguing puzzles.
Kit and Hodge work seamlessly together
With Kit’s vision being impaired she can only see a small portion of the world around her and this is where Hodge the cat comes into play. They can navigate their way through London’s maze of underground tunnels together. Kit can not jump over a ledge on her own however, if Hodge meows near the ledge Kit can jump across. She will also break into a slight run if Hodge has already walked a path and shown her the way. Without that help from Hodge she’ll walk very slowly and hesitantly.
Switching between the two characters is seamless as a quick touch of the R shoulder button and the screen changes from Kit’s perspective to Hodge’s view. Kit view is darkened due to her blindness where as Hodge’s world is bright and clear. This adds to the atmosphere and story of the game even if it does take some getting used to at the start of the game.
Lacking precision
With Another Sight being fully voice acted Kit can talk to Hodge to ask him where he is. Hodge will meow in return, this also leads to some friendly, all be it one sided, chat between Kit and the cat. Hodge can also interact with other people by meowing and drawing their attention then leading them away. In a particular part of the game Kit hides behind a pillar and has to stealthily sneak past the guards who are standing in Kit’s way, Hodge meows and leads the guard out of Kit’s path so she is clear to sneak past.
During the platform portions of the game however I did find that at times when controlling Kit or Hodge, the jumping between ledges was lacking precision. Kit would fall, even when the button was pressed at the correct time. This lead to some frustration as I kept having to complete the platform sections of the game over and over again until Kit got it right. Sneaking past guards was also a problem as quite clearly Kit had passed the guard and the lamp he is carrying but yet she was still caught and returned to the last save point that she passed. I would have expected these problems to be ironed out before the game was released as it does take away a bit of the pleasure from what otherwise is an enjoyable game.
Searching for more then her father
As the story progresses you met some well known composers and inventors from history, Monet, Tesla, Debussy, and Edison amongst others as the story unfolds to reveal that Kit is also looking for a mysterious power source called a Node as well as her Father.
Each of the cut screens are done in a pastel coloured still imagine and fully voiced acted which gives each of the characters a lot more personality.
The steampunk elements are present in Kit’s surroundings and they do make the game lovely to look at. One particular scene has Kit and Hodge strolling through Monet’s garden. The scenery is gorgeous with loads brightly coloured strange plants growing. The underground adventure is atmospheric with dark places, dripping water and creaking pipes in the sound effects reminding you that Kit and Hodge are indeed in London’s underground.
Puzzles vary from finding a switch for Hodge to stand on to open a door for Kit to go through, or Kit finding a lever to pull that moves a platform with Hodge standing on it across a toxic puddle. Later you come across an extremely large pipe organ to play a specific tune on, this isn’t hard so much as an exercise in patience to figure out which key triggers which note, with the organ resetting each time you hit the wrong one.
Conclusion
Another Sight is certainly a visually beautiful game to play, some of the puzzles do require some thought. After all, it is a puzzle game at its roots. Apart from the few issues I have mentioned about the controls Another Sight is a fun game, the cooperation between Kit and Hodge and the seamless switch between them is well thought out and executed in the game by the developers Lunar Great Wall Studios.
With it’s mix of puzzles, platform and stealth and a cat called Hodge, I found the game to be enjoyable and give it the score of I like it.
