Telepaths Tree’s debut feature , a young studio based in Warsaw (Poland), aims to transport us to a lost world in which the line that separates flesh from gears is blurred, where death and brutality are breathed and where staying sane is not it is an option. Unfortunately, it does not succeed.
While it is true that the title has tremendously successful aspects and beautiful in its grotesque aspect, these bright and brilliant points are not
able to counteract a heavy burden that absolutely throws to the ground what could be called to be a great game. Inner Chains is, from start to finish, a good missed opportunity. But let’s go in parts to understand it better.
The horror of the flesh
As they tell on their website, the game was born from the desire to capture the artistic drawings and compositions of the studio director, Tomasz Strzalkowsi , whose main inspiration is undoubtedly HR Giger , the brilliant artist whose main work is about biomechanics .
The level design drink directly from the cosmic horror of HP Lovecraft , presenting an alien world where sanity has no place in which the walls are made of flesh, the switches are made with spinal cords and ropes are made with veins and tendons. In this atypical a
nd twisted landscape we will find tentacles armed with sharp stingers that sprout from the ground like plants, barriers similar to nerve endings and tons of corpses forming part of the structures or simply stacked on the ground as if they were rubbish.
The few weapons that we will find during our trip (in this case, only three) also have that intimate connection with our body, since they will be connected directly to our muscles and tendons, being more an extension of us than a weapon. In that sense, we could find references to the cinema of David Cronenberg , also adept at this particular biomechanical world
Unfortunately, the graphic strengths of the game end here. Although the scenarios have a beautiful and grotesque design in equal parts, the realization of the same leaves to be desired, finding repetitive designs and excessively overloaded that in more th
SKYLAR & PLUX: ADVENTURE ON CLOVER ISLAND
an one occasion will make us not able to know where we are going. In addition, the finishing of the same sins of simplistic in excess, with ” tricks ” that could be admissible for fpsin the early 90’s, where it was common to s
ee shreds of cloth or one-dimensional cobwebs hanging from the walls and with which it was enough to rotate the camera a little to appreciate
that it was a simple texture applied to an object without volume; or details like fixed flames in the numerous candles that we find, and even errors in the textures that make groups of moths look like square pixels without form.
The enemies are designed in a way that does not clash with the scenarios, and have a high level of detail, but unfortunately also pecan to be repetitive, which will find priests fully traced, walking corpses removed from a photocopier and carnivorous worms whose Maximum variety lies in being greenish or reddish.
In addition, in the 7 hours that it has taken us to finish the game we have been able to experience in more than one occasion graphic bugs of the caliber of the attached images, which honestly, is not admissible in a game of a study whose members come from such illustrious places like CD Project Red or People Can Fly .
Sighs and cries
Normally we can say without fear of making a mistake that the soundtrack of a title carries the narrative weight of the game. It is the soundtrack that manages to transport us to the heart of history and make it our own, to live it fully.
In the case of Inner Chains , the music and sounds are correct. This correction is understood as being sufficient to acclimate; but unfortunately the few pieces of music in terms of quantity and variety can not get us into that alien world that should breathe and throb with every step. Most of the time we will walk in silence, sometimes accompanied by subtle pieces, but we do not find those dramatic moments or tension in the music … because simply, there are none.
The sounds of the shots and the creatures are also correct, but they suffer from “force” and drama. The traveling corpses barely groan, the religious fanatics do not shout or curse. The carnivorous worms at death emit sounds similar to those of a chihuahua instead of a drowned death rattle.
This little variety in musical and sound level, and this lack of strength seem to accumulate with the sensation of repetitiveness in the scenarios to which we alluded before, forming in this way an atmosphere that far from being threatening ends up being leaden, slow and in some moments , frankly tedious.
Dismal steps
Just launch the game we find a sober menu in black tones that frame a disturbing image of the Governing Class . If we are used to touch all the options before starting the game itself, we can see a hint of how short the game is in the chapter selection scr
een. At the beginning only a new game starting and loading from the last checkpoint is available, but there are 3 more holes, which shows that it is developed over a total of four chapters.
In the other options, we can see a section of controls that does not allow any alteration of them and a section of graphic options that strangely only a
llows high or low configuration. We can not even make changes to the advanced settings. Absolutely nothing.
