July Assassination #2 (SG Win/ PoP Pick)

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Black The Fall is a good, not great 2.5D side-scroller puzzle game that is decent, competent, but yet, probably not worth your time.

Starting with the pros -- the game has an incredible art direction and very frequently looks great. It is also short enough that it feels respectful of your time, and the puzzles frequently are quite good (not always thou), with gimmicks evolving as you move further into the game (from standalone laser pointer to controlling the robot, for instance). Most of the puzzles are physics-based and the physics are generally fine. All in all, it gives you a good time and is over before it gets too old.

That said, the flaws are very hard to ignore. Narrative-wise, the game is quite minimalistic, which is a nice way to say it has the shell of a story and that`s it. And I think that's a shame, because the universe is quite interesting and well realized, but the game refuses to explain who you are, what you are doing there, and why you should care, which lower the narratives stakes and leave a lot of value at the table. While I mentioned most puzzles are good, some are incredibly obtuse and sometimes hampered by the same great art direction, which obscures elements of the solution in plain sight. I ended up using a guide a few times (mostly on the second half), sometimes just to figure out the movement part of it (since movement in this game is reaaaally janky). It's a shame, because there are few things as frustrating as failing a puzzle because of poor movement (looking at you, Hue).

The game is not incredibly well optimized, frequently hovering around 30FPS in the same rig where I played Elden Ring and RDR2 at 60FPS. Soundtrack is basically non-existent and most cheevos are impossible to figure out in your first playthrough. Actually, I saw many comparisons between this game and Limbo/Inside, but for me the best comparison is with the Oddworld series -- both series ask you a lot of mechanical precision on a puzzle game yet fail to deliver a satisfying movement system, and both series ask you to die a lot in order to learn enemy movements and timing, which is a really cheap progression system.

All in all, if you have this game in your library you might as well play it, but if you don't, I wouldn't buy it.