The biggest challenge facing Iris.Fall is standing out when other monochrome, shadow-based puzzlers have launched in pretty swift succession. We’ve had Morkredd and Shady Part of Me in the past month, and Projection: First Light a couple of months before that. Can Iris.Fall offer something they didn’t?
Iris.Fall is out now on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, PS5 and Nintendo Switch to join a previous PC (Steam) drop.
Early indications are pretty good, actually. NeXt Studios wowed us with Biped in 2020, and Clown Trick has been getting some rave reviews on other platforms. They’re a studio to watch, and they have a knack for taking a good idea to its creative extreme, which is exactly what we need in this crowded little gaming nook.
Iris.Fall also looks the absolute business. There’s a monochrome, cel-shaded aesthetic here, and while it might initially look drab without any colour, it looks like there are going to be moments of real beauty, as you wander into Escher-like landscapes, stealth past a wall made of eyes, and negotiate with giant automatons. If there’s a game it most reminds us of, it’s actually Ico – another game that enjoyed embedding its puzzles into the environment, and playing with shadows.
The puzzles themselves look more conventional, pushing you to place cogs and pull levers in the effort to escape a dilapidated theatre. You will be switching between light and darkness to escape each room, very similar to Shady Part of Me’s switching between characters of light and shade.
Early reviews have been good on PC, the first platform that Iris.Fall launched on, sitting at 9/10 on Steam and 70% on Metacritic. You can be sure, without a shadow of a doubt, that we will be posting a review on this one as soon as we can.
Iris.Fall is out now on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S and starts at £16.74 from the Xbox Store. It’s also out on PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch and PC.
Game Description:
Fusing gameplay with light & shadow. The concept of light and shadow runs throughout the design of the game’s story, art and puzzles. Switch between light and shadow and pass through the two realities as you experience unique interlacing of black and white, as well as both 2D and 3D.
