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Friday 6 May 2016

Press 'X' to Review: Saira

Saira
Platform: PC/Steam 
Developer: Nicklas Nygren
Premise: After a teleportation accident causes the disappearance of the entire human race save for two people (counting yourself), you must put together another long-range teleporter to reach the only other human and figure out where everyone else went.
Release Date: 12/12/2009

It does occur to me that with the exception of The Forest, the only thing I've actually reviewed on this blog has been 2D puzzle platformers, optionally with Metroid/Vania elements. That being said, here's Saira, a 2D puzzle-platformer with Metroid/Vania elements that I'd like to say upfront that I quite liked. You play as the titular "Saira" after a teleportation accident leaves you the only human left in the universe, save for one other bloke who disappears in the intro sequence so that the rest of the game can be spent jumping between planets to find pieces to build another teleporter (because that worked so well last time) to try and find him.

The design aesthetic is quite good, although it does occasionally fall into the uncanny valley with photos occasionally side-by-side with drawn graphics. Each planet feels distinctly different from the others, while still keeping the undercurrent feeling of being totally alone throughout the game. Crumbling ruins of once-mighty colonies tower in the background as nature reclaims its territory on one planet, and another in the same system might be a garden world that humanity never made it to. Several planets also have gameplay mechanics unique to that planet; for example, there's a planet where your health constantly ticks down except for certain safe spots due to high toxicity, another does a lowered-gravity kind of thing, and another does a really interesting thing with electricity that I'll endeavor not to spoil.


The puzzle design is quite good in its variety and difficulty. They're on just the right side of frustrating, where it gets me annoyed that I can't solve it but not so annoyed that I end up quitting. However, it does occasionally fall into some of the same pitfalls that The Witness did, in that the environments are really pretty but sooner or later you're going to have to stare at a bit of control panel and figure out what it wants from you. However, it is worth mentioning that it avoids the other pitfall that The Witness fell into with the puzzles by having them be fairly varied. 

It's also interesting how it finds ways to work the Metroid/Vania elements into the puzzles with the closest it has to a unique selling point: the camera. The story explanation for this is that Saira's day job is a sort of cross between interstellar adventurer and National Geographic photographer, so occasionally there'll be a password or a map or what-have-you hidden in the scenery, and you can photograph it so that you have a reference in your PDA later when you're staring at one of the aforementioned bits of control panel. The PDA also gives you a program that will give you a hint for whatever control panel you're currently looking at, which I found myself relying on a fair bit towards the end.

Occasionally the puzzle solutions aren't quite clear; for example, one particular puzzle is a quiz that only shows you the answers, not the questions. You then have to find another panel that shows you the questions, photograph them, figure out all of the answers from little pieces in the background or hidden in obnoxiously difficult to climb cliffs and then backtrack to the answer panel. However, this isn't so much of a problem because very few puzzles like this require all the puzzles to be solved, they just need the password that it will result in, which you can google fairly easily if you really can't be bothered with it.

One of the other interesting features it has is the ship; travelling between the different solar systems takes time, so they do the GTA thing and licence a bunch of music to listen to listen to on the radio. There's also a pinball minigame, which while a bit out of place is nonetheless quite fun. At the end of each system, you'll be a shown a little four-panel dream sequence from Saira followed by her waking up in varying states of distress in the ship. The ship also comes in to play during the rest of the platforming; travelling between systems takes energy out of the batteries, so you need to find a charger in each system if you have any plans of continuing the game. 

I do, however, have one other slight gripe with the game: it's not as long as it claims to be. In the menu, it implies that there are multiple episodes by having an episode select screen and a first chapter (which, at time of writing, is the only chapter) called "The episode where Saira has bad luck with teleportation". It's a bit of a mouthful, but it implies that finishing that episode (which I did) would lead to something other than just a credits screen and a feeling of confusion. It's entirely possible that an update bringing another episode with answers to what the hell happened after the terribly confusing bombshell of the true ending, but until that either does or doesn't drop it's just something we'll have to speculate about.

At the end of the day, it's a competently put together game with well thought out puzzles, pretty scenery, an interesting narrative that's well told and engaging, and an alright soundtrack. And it's free. This is a game that you should absolutely get. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to find a game to review that isn't a 2D puzzle platformer.

As always, anyone who has a suggestion for a review, rant topic, or just wants to say "hi!", can do so by emailing me at pressxtoreview@gmail.com

-Harry

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