Somerville (v2022.12.16)

A quiet family evening collapses into an alien apocalypse, leaving one ordinary man separated from his partner and child amid the ruins of a failing world. Somerville is a cinematic science-fiction adventure built around intimate loss rather than heroic warfare, following a father as he crosses deserted homes, flooded roads, military checkpoints, and colossal extraterrestrial structures. Its wordless storytelling and subdued presentation create a melancholy, unsettling mood, with the scale of the invasion always felt through its consequences on civilians. The focus remains personal even as the skies fill with impossible machines and humanity’s response turns increasingly desperate.

Progress comes through side-scrolling exploration, environmental observation, and light puzzle solving instead of traditional combat. The protagonist gradually gains the ability to affect strange alien residue, shifting it between solid, liquid, and gaseous states to open routes, power machinery, or survive hazardous terrain. Encounters often ask for caution rather than aggression: hiding, fleeing, reading an alien creature’s behavior, or choosing a route through unstable spaces. Puzzles can be deliberately opaque, since the game expects players to infer rules from visual clues and experiment with the material in front of them, while later decisions and discoveries lead toward several endings.

What distinguishes Somerville is its willingness to tell a sprawling invasion story without lengthy explanations, dialogue trees, or a constant stream of action. The painterly environments, restrained sound design, and frequent shifts between domestic spaces and vast alien landscapes give it a strong sense of place, even when its narrative leaves room for interpretation. It shares some DNA with Inside and Limbo in its cinematic framing and environmental puzzles, but trades their brutal precision for a broader, more emotional science-fiction mystery. Players who enjoy atmospheric, short-form adventures and don’t mind ambiguous storytelling will find a memorable trip here; those wanting clear objectives, demanding action, or neatly explained lore may find its vagueness frustrating.