indie games - LesPlayGames

SCHiM Review – Style Over Substance

SCHiM is a game that immediately caught my eye after coming across a Reddit post from one of its creators, Ewoud van der Werf, five to six years ago: its striking visuals, genuinely interesting idea, and simple but pleasing gameplay mechanics (where a frog-like creature is seen jumping from shadow to shadow within an urban city environment) were met with a lot of interest and excitement on the creator’s post. It’s a game I found myself thinking about from time to time, thanks to its undeniable charm and unique premise.

After finally playing through it on Switch (via Switch 2) a year after its July 2024 release, SCHiM does succeed in nailing its charming environments and providing an undeniably adorable shadowy protagonist, but its main strengths unfortunately end there, with the end result offering an aesthetically pleasing but ultimately shallow experience.

You control a “schim”— a frog-like creature with the ability to jump from shadow to shadow.

You’ll spend 65 similarly-structured levels traversing as a frog-like shadow, or “schim”—a Dutch word that translates to “shadow, phantom, or soul”—that repeatedly tries to reunite with its owner after being suddenly separated near the start of the story. The gameplay is simple: utilize the shadows of everyday, often urban objects—such as moving vehicles, flying birds, or wandering pedestrians—to reach a specific area at the end of each level and keep chasing after your ever-elusive human counterpart.

The game is devoid of any dialogue, rather relying on simple environmental storytelling, which ends up working well: you’ll briefly shadow the life’s journey of a young boy, where you’ll see him transition from boyhood to adulthood, experience his first breakup, graduation, and first job, which he suddenly loses. His job termination acts as a major catalyst for the plot, where a sudden fall causes you to split from the down-on-his-luck human tether and continuously chase after him in hopes of reuniting and helping steer his life onto a better course.

Your chief goal is to somehow reunite with your human tether—a down-on-his-luck office worker who’s struggling to get back on his feet.

For its mechanics, you’re confined to jumping from shadow to shadow toward the end goal of each level, which you can preview at any time with the press of a button (ZR on Switch); this helps you stay on track if you happen to find yourself jumping to a dead end or chasing after optional hidden items peppered throughout most of the game’s levels. In addition to your main, long jump, you’re granted a much smaller hop to help reach your intended shadow, which works as a solid and well-implemented mechanic (I occasionally found myself juuust being able to reach my target thanks to this small secondary jump, which led to some satisfying moments).

The plethora of collectible items—which help reunite other lost schims to their specific tethers—offer some fun challenges, as well as urge deeper exploration and help prolong the game’s short runtime.

Rotating the camera opens up more shadows and angles to play around with, adding a layer of slightly deeper strategy that helps fight the monotony that starts to creep in after a dozen or so stages (although the camera angles do occasionally feel obstructive and somewhat frustrating in tight corners, resulting in a hit-or-miss leap of faith; though to the game’s credit, this kind of situation turned out to be pretty rare).

After the visually charming, but admittedly uneventful, first twenty or so minutes, the game starts to pick up more momentum and intrigue once the phantom becomes disconnected from its user, where you navigate the shadows of simple, common objects—like a loose box or a street lamp—to try to catch up to your human host. The game really opens up at this point, offering an initially promising sandbox that urges exploration.

Timing and navigating moving objects, like a passing moped or a walking pedestrian, offers some welcome variation and puzzle platforming to the mix.
When the environment lines up just right, you can find a satisfying rhythm to the movement and traversal that immediately draws you into the experience more. While all levels feature a genuinely charming and visually pleasing color palette and flair, some areas, like those with rain or dynamic shadows, feel especially immersive and creative, with the level design inviting more planning and strategy to your end-level goal. The game’s menu looks stylized and visually appealing as well; the small detail of having the schim leap from level to level in the stage selection screen feels like a nice touch.

Certain areas offer a more engaging experience, such as those that feature rain or dynamic shadows.

While many of the game’s levels do feel largely the same, despite their consistently charming design and changing color palettes, certain sections succeed in standing out more, offering a welcome break from monotony. A warehouse level, for example, feels like one of the game’s most satisfying, with the constantly moving machinery, clever jumping mechanics via slender/wire-line shadows, tricky conveyor belts, and an intricate level layout helping show off SCHiM’s true puzzle-platforming capabilities. (I really wish the game featured more levels like this one!)

Another favorite section of mine is a late-game area that reverses the roles of the shadow and its out-of-reach human, with the few levels offering a more surreal and daring feel to the game. At the same time, this area also unfortunately featured the sole glitch of my playthrough, with the glitched human—where he suddenly became stuck running in place, no matter where I moved—forcing me to restart the level. SCHiM never sends you far should you fail a jump or want to restart a level, but this moment was still a little surprising due to the game’s otherwise glitch and lag-free experience.

A specific late-game area offers one of the more interesting sections, where the mechanics are inverted and the roles of the shadow and its human are suddenly reversed, resulting in some wonderfully surreal visuals.

While your schim is given the opportunity to interact with any object it jumps into, the effects end up being largely insignificant (e.g. a lamp briefly rocking back and forth, trash bins spewing trash that surprisingly lack any key items or purpose, and humans that merely cough or look around); the biggest use of the button is to control traffic lights, which do affect vehicular and pedestrian traffic, making for some interesting puzzle-platforming.

While the interactable traffic lights do feel like a nice touch, and it does feel satisfying to find the hidden objects scattered throughout the levels—which help in significantly adding to the story’s otherwise short runtime—it can’t help but feel like a strongly missed opportunity not to utilize the schim’s abilities more and further play around with the world you inhabit, such as by having the dedicated interaction button carry a stronger sense of purpose throughout your journey. At best, this function feels like a believable distraction; while momentarily interesting, there’s often just nothing there to sink into.

SCHiM’s world features lots of well-drawn and interactable objects …that unfortunately don’t do much of anything.

Regarding its story (which, like much of the game’s mechanics, is very simple), while witnessing your human tether’s struggles and attempts in bettering himself (e.g. via different jobs, hobbies, etc.) does help you form a stronger connection to the journey, it admittedly starts to feel tiresome and repetitive in having to repeatedly see your target move just out of reach over and over again for 60+ levels. Crafting more narrative-driven reasons for the schim’s continual inability to catch up to its owner would have greatly elevated the plot and overall experience, a nagging feeling that came to mind for much of my time with the game.

The final section of the game does feel a bit more narratively-focused, with the levels offering some palpable tension, more complex puzzles, and higher stakes, but the ending still ends up feeling underwhelming, causing your continuous chases, leaps, and efforts to lack a more satisfying sense of accomplishment, both mechanically and narratively.

SCHiM’s post-game options offer some additional challenges for subsequent playthroughs, such as turning off the extra jump or only limiting you to a set number of lives before having to restart the game, but due to the game’s thin plot and overly similar levels, I personally didn’t find the urge to dive back into the shadows, despite the charm and visual appeal.

A visually-dazzling but shallow adventure.

Verdict

SCHiM’s appealing and striking visuals, as well as its imaginative and charming premise, undoubtedly infuse this puzzle-platformer with lots of initial promise—but its repetitive gameplay loop, lack of stronger substance, and missed opportunities to explore its premise and mechanics further make for an ultimately underwhelming experience that never quite hits its stride.

I’m happy to have finally experienced the final product, and I found myself genuinely enjoying many aspects of the title’s beautifully crafted animation and ever-changing color palettes—I just wish there were more substance to complement its style.

6/10 OKAY

The Good

Undeniably unique premise, stylish visuals, and charming atmosphere, all of which work well in pulling you into the unfolding game
Moments of satisfying puzzle-platforming, especially in the more specific and themed levels
Late-game sections feel more narrative-driven and offer a stronger sense of excitement

The Bad

Gameplay loop quickly grows stale and often feels monotonous, causing the game’s short runtime to feel simultaneously overly long
Plot feels loosely-woven, even for an action-platformer
Missed opportunities to further explore and expand on the game’s premise, mechanics, and plot
Optional post-game modifiers lack a more compelling reason to revisit the game once you’re done

Les spent around five hours platforming and finding collectibles in SCHiM on the Nintendo Switch 2.

NORCO Review – Big Trouble in the Deep South

It’s always a welcome and fairly rare treat when a game can evoke a wide range of emotions from its audience, be it inner reflection, grief, regret, inspiration, or genuine glee—these are all feelings I experienced during my roughly seven hour journey with NORCO, a biting, satirical, and deeply human point-and-click adventure that showcases what a beautifully-crafted, narrative-driven game can really deliver.

Taking place in a real-life town called Norco, in Louisiana, NORCO’s—short for New Orleans Refining Company—dystopian and futuristic settings share a number of similarities with its source material, with both towns plagued by their dark history of oil refinery and environmental disasters, and smoke-covered skies from the unfeeling, monolithic-like flare stacks, which are prominently shown in the game’s opening minutes. Some of the best aspects of the game are its specificity and undeniable authenticity—even if you’ve never been to a place like Norco, the game’s small-town struggles, eccentric denizens, and underlying corruption will likely resonate with most players on some level.

Since it’s a narrative-driven point-and-click adventure, it’s no surprise that its story (as opposed to its simple puzzles and admittedly forgettable QTE mechanics) is the star of the show. Your time is split between playing as Kay—a nomadic young woman who reluctantly returns to her dilapidating home after five years of wandering around militia and war-torn America—and her mother Catherine, an intelligent professor-turned-investigative journalist who’s dying from cancer.

Kay’s present-day adventure takes place following her mother’s death, resulting in an interesting juxtaposition between the mother’s and daughter’s separate but connected journeys. Family trauma is at the forefront of the experience, with the game letting you immediately know how much of Kay’s quiet guilt stems from her estranged relationships with her dead mother, absent father, and missing younger brother (who you try to track down throughout Kay’s story).

NORCO tackles some heavy subjects, including terminal illness and family trauma.

Having the story start with Kay’s reluctant and quietly-emotional return home works well in immediately hooking the player in—the opening sequence does a great job of establishing the game’s Southern Gothic tonal blend of melancholy and sci-fi nihilism, with the beautifully-crafted pixelated graphics and animation, as well as the electronic dynamic soundtrack, immediately pulling you in, just like the opening minutes of a great movie or a book that you know you won’t put down.

Memories of the protagonist’s late mom loom everywhere in the family’s dilapidated home.

Kay’s desolate, natural disaster-stricken family house, reminders of her youth via her childhood bedroom, and painful reminders of her mother’s heavy absence, which you learn more about as you click your way through the environment, work as a fantastic way of pulling you into the story; childhood mementos, such as Kay’s beloved and slightly unsettling stuffed monkey, and traumatic experiences, including a darkly comedic memory where she recollects her brother’s desperate efforts to clense the family’s roach-infested microwave, come across as immediately resonant and nostalgic. I can’t stress enough how well done these simple but character and environment-driven opening moments truly are.

Kay’s story revolves around tracking down her missing, slacker-like younger brother and searching for clues relating to the mysterious circumstances surrounding her mother’s death, where the latter’s condition suddenly deteriorated after investigating the oil refinery’s supernatural operations in a local lake, where a mysterious white light was seen (the story is out there in the best way possible). Your accomplices include a small number of eccentric and often darkly comedic characters, such as the futuristic android companion Million, and often clueless and affable private detective Brett LeBlanc, who ends up being the star of the show.

Brett LeBlanc—an eccentric and often hilarious detective who will accompany part of your journey.

For a point-and-click game, its roster of characters can make or break the experience, and Geography of Robots greatly succeeds in delivering an ensemble of likable, deeply memorable, eccentric, and often comical individuals. The story’s humor is genuinely well done as well, with Geography of Robots nailing the tonal blend of moving family trauma, sci-fi and detective-themed mystery/suspense, and darkly-comedic/absurdist situations; one optional dialogue interaction—“Showgoer’s Tale”— particularly stands out, where a random man recalls their hilariously disasterous, gastrointestinal night, after you’d willingly coerced them into ingesting expired hot dogs. Just pure cinema.

The story’s filled with zany and darkly comedic moments, which greatly add to the overall experience.

In addition to the point-and-click mechanics you’d expect from a point-and-click game, where you use your cursor to investigate the largely static screen for any clues or observations within a given environment, NORCO utilizes a feature called “Mind Map,” a kind of dynamic quest log and character database where Kay attempts to piece together clues and recall past events as you progress through the story; it’s a visually interesting mechanic that makes sense for the game and leans into the story’s mystery/suspense/detective-themed narrative.

The game utilizes a “Mind Map” to keep track of your clues and the story’s progression.

The story is a layered adventure full of surreal, sci-fi, and dystopian twists and turns that’ll keep fans of the genre hooked until the end, and it’s best to leave any further details secret to avoid any spoilers; while there are other, major story elements to discuss, I think it’s best to experience the narrative as blind as possible.

Which moves us onto the game’s still fairly solid but not-quite-as-exciting next section: it’s actual gameplay. While the point-and-click mechanics and Mind Map-related gameplay do feel satisfying, some of NORCO’s other gameplay elements tend to give off a much more hit-or-miss experience. The game’s minor Quick Time Event moments, for instance, feel a bit stiff and lack any real excitement; maybe if they were more utilized within the game, they could’ve had a more memorable impact/offered a more memorable sense of variety to the experience, but as is, they ultimately feel slapped on.

There’s a specific boat-themed section in the game’s third act that ends up feeling as the game’s weakest. Controlling the small boat on screen, while avoiding initially invisible walls and other obstacles, while interesting in theory, ends up feeling largely like padding, causing the game to stumble a bit leading up to its genuinely exciting and climactic final sections. The bland underwater sections, which surprisingly lack any strong imagery to accompany their on-screen text descriptions/storytelling, and feature rudimentary “flip the switch until green” puzzles, come across as uncharacteristically undercooked and shallow. This area ultimately left me scratching my head due to its low quality and unfulfilling gameplay, especially when compared to the rest of the game. This section does feature one of the game’s most iconic artistic moments, but even still, the padding here is apparent and ultimately hurts NORCO’s overall effect.

The game’s boat-themed late-game section is one of its weakest parts, where the gameplay feels bland and the artistic direction is surprisingly lacking.

NORCO’s final big section ends up being the game’s most memorable and immersive, with the story leaning more heavily into its alien, sci-fi, and surreal themes and providing an unsettling atmosphere that helps the overall game leave a more lasting impression. Without giving away spoilers, the surreal-like dream sequence is one of the best parts of the entire game—the heartbreaking family interactions and what-could-have-beens culminate into an emotionally-charged conclusion that may very well induce tears (good luck to anyone with family trauma!). While the ending does provide an overall stellar conclusion, I’d have to say certain aspects do feel a bit rushed, such as the story’s surprising lack of deeper exploration for Kay’s relationship with her missing brother.

Verdict

NORCO offers a genuinely memorable, cathartic, and often hilarious and absurd experience that’s delivered via a gorgeous pixel-animated package. The city’s distinct feel, expressive small-town vibes, and eccentric ensemble of characters are sure to please fans of narrative-driven experiences. I do wish the game’s actual gameplay were a bit deeper and more satisfying, but even if some of NORCO’s mechanics do feel rudimentary and cause some lulls in the experience, the story and its layered journey more than make up for its shortcomings.

This truly feels like a one-of-a-kind adventure that everyone should try to experience, especially those who aren’t afraid to open themselves up for introspection and emotionally-charged storytelling.

8/10 GREAT

The Good

Gorgeous pixel animation and environments that immediately draw the audience into NORCO’s small-town, Louisiana settings
Often emotionally-charged storytelling that hits right in the feels, providing a deeply moving experience that’ll resonate with fans of narrative-driven games
Genuinely interesting small cast of characters that breathes life into the game’s world, with certain characters providing hilarious moments that work well in cutting through the game’s continual, dystopian tension
The story offers a great mix of sci-fi, mystery/suspense, detective, and light horror-themed elements that’ll keep the player invested until the end
Certain gameplay mechanics, like the Mind Map, give the player an interesting and visually appealing way of working through the plot

The Bad

The actual gameplay can admittedly feel lacking, with QTE and occasional puzzles largely feeling forgettable and/or overly simple
Certain sections act more like bland padding, such as the game’s boat-related area in its final act
While deeply moving, the ending does feel a bit rushed/undercooked in some regards, notably Kay’s relationship with her missing brother

Les spent seven hours uncovering the surreal mysteries of NORCO on a base PS5.

Maybe not Earth-shattering, but living up to the hype—Hollow Knight: Silksong impressions after playing for 4 hours straight (Spoiler Free)

As I’m in the middle of my playthrough of NORCO—which I’m enjoying a lot so far, but more on that soon—the Hollow Night: Silksong hype train has been barreling at me from pretty much all directions: Steam, Nintendo’s eShop, the PlayStation store, Reddit, and the whole internet itself seem to be either crashing and/or on fire after the near decade-long wait for Silksong finally came to a close early Thursday morning, when the internet was finally allowed to remove their clown makeup and readied themselves to play this mythical, unicorn of a game in the flesh.

After scrolling through Reddit and Twitter, and seeing pretty much universal praise (aside from those who just don’t like Metroidvanias or didn’t enjoy the first game [I totally understand these kinds of games are punishing at times, so they’re not for everyone]), I decided to put everything else on hold (including sleep; yep, it’s 4:00am right now) and dive into Silksong for a modest hour (which became nearly four).

Here are my impressions thus far, as someone who loved 2017’s Hollow Knight and loves Metroidvanias:

**This time around you’ll be playing as Hornet, a skilled, needle-wielding warrior who was introduced in the first Hollow Knight.**

The Good Stuff

The world is drop-dead gorgeous: Beautiful environments, animation, and sound design, which do a fantastic job of pulling you into the unfolding journey. Just like in 2017’s Hollow Knight, the atmosphere is spot on.

Hornet plays as a strong lead; although the game doesn’t provide you with a lot of deep lore or exposition, the story still feels good and comes across as compelling, with Hornet’s chief, simple goal being to simply make her way up through the labyrinthian world. Unlike the previous game’s silent hero, Hornet does provide some Hollow Knight-themed gibberish voice acting here (paired with normal text dialogue), which, to my slight surprise, helps her come across as more three-dimensional and personable. Her character’s animations are also really satisfying; I especially love the way her red dress billows in the wind as you run forward.

The music is very atmospheric and often ethereal, which fits the tone and environment perfectly.

Finding beads and collecting shards (which both serve as currency in this world), as well as discovering hidden rooms, all feel satisfying. Very much a game for those who love to explore and find hidden stuff.

While hit-or-miss (as mentioned below), pulling off the diagonal downward attack does feel pretty slick against specific, traversal-related platforms. The acrobatics in these moments offer great-looking visual flair as well, which plays well into Hornet’s natural athleticism and dancer-like physique.

**Not quite Mordor, but awfully close.**

…The So-So Stuff

So the map isn’t the best (at least so far), but it’s serviceable. Map markers could allow more precise placements (i.e. by allowing the player to zoom into the map more; I’m always dumbfounded when Metroidvanias limit how many markers you can place or how far into the map you can zoom in, though the game does let you purchase more markers a little later on).

Certain areas on the map are left looking “undiscovered” even if you’ve already been there (i.e. corridors/openings that appear as though you haven’t been through them yet, causing you to go back and then realize you’ve already been there… making you look at the map again and annoyingly scratch your head). This can result in occasional confusion and needless backtracking, hurting the game’s pacing.

The downward attack, at least for combat, is almost useless. It hits at a fairly-wide angle and is very fidgety in actually landing on a foe, resulting in needless accidental health damage; the only real use I’ve had for it, at least thus far, is for maneuvering over platforms specifically made to be bounced over (pictured below).

It’ll very likely unlock soon, but the lack of a dash early in the game has made Hornet’s movements just a tad too sluggish (but again, I’m sure the ability is close at hand, since I’ve come across two areas that now require it).

**These little red bulbs require the use of Hornet’s downward attack for traversal, a mechanic that can unfortunately be hit-or-miss.**

Is it Earth-shattering? No, but it’s still damn good.

Hollow Knight: Silksong’s long, long wait has made it seem like this is the game to end all games, due to its near-impossible expectations after constant delays and the promise of something truly special, especially since the first game was such a smash hit.

I loved 2017’s Hollow Knight and love Metroidvanias in general, so I might be a bit overly-familiar with the genre and its mechanics, but while Silksong doesn’t feel like it’s reinventing the wheel or bringing something brand new to the table, at the same time it doesn’t have to—So far, it just feels like a really great game that, while a lot like its predecessor, largely elevates everything to a higher degree.

The fact that I couldn’t put the game down, and very, very reluctantly decided to put my Switch 2 to sleep after nearly four hours straight, is proof, in my eyes, that this is a game that’s worth your time and is easy to lose yourself in.

If you’re on the fence on whether to give it a try, whether you want to wait or aren’t sure if the tough combat is your cup of tea (by the way, combat doesn’t feel excessively punishing either, just take your time with the bosses and/or come back later to a stronger, optional foe), I’d say jump on in and let yourself be absorbed by this beautiful, melancholic labyrinth. (You don’t need to have played the first game either.) For $19.99, it’s a straight-up steal.