The Old City: Leviathan Review
Developer Postmod Softworks
Puiblisher Postmod Softworks
Platform PC
Release Date Out Now
“This is the perspective of a strange man. His mind is broken. He cannot separate truth from fiction. All he can do is dream.”
Fast-paced action.
Combat.
Espionage.
Inventory lists that would fill a small house.
If you’re looking for any of the above, look elsewhere.
If you’re interested in a new, slightly eerie experience, looking to have your mind disoriented at every turn, or have played the likes of Dear Esther, The Stanley Parable or Gone Home and want something similar, read on.
The Old City: Leviathan is a first person exploration game that focuses entirely on the story, where all that exists is you and the world. Set in a decaying city from a civilisation long since extinct, this game puts the player behind the eyes of a sewer dwelling isolationist.
It is completely obscure, abstract, and there is no clear cut solution as to how to finish the game. Therein lies the catch; the mystery surrounding the Leviathan and its meaning is to provoke thought, pique your curiosity and to get you to sit up and pay attention. The end goal of the game is to draw your own conclusion.
To top it off, when starting the game, you are met with these words:
“You are about to inhabit a broken mind. Not everything you see or hear is trustworthy.”
Confusing? Absolutely.
Released at the start of December last year, Postmod Softworks stated about the game:
“We sought to discard the esoteric puzzles and repetitive gameplay loops of traditional games in favour of a pure narrative experience that delves into philosophical themes oft neglected by the medium.”
In order for the developers to push this point across, this game slows the player down, to walking pace, and excludes action sequences or the use of puzzles to progress game play. All the player has to do is walk, look around, and listen. This defiance of the usual fast pace and huge emphasis on combat and missions/quests might make you think it’s an empty shell, but that’s far from true. The game sets you free to walk around this city, choose any area you wish to explore, while listening to commentary on details that you pass or move close to.
The game in itself is up to five hours long, but the allure of finding every nook and cranny and every secret area will guarantee much more time spent exploring.
There isn’t a whole lot to get to grips with in terms of interface and moving your character around; aside from open doors, a small jump function with space bar, and mouse click to look more closely at something, that’s all you’re given to play this game. However, it doesn’t need any more; the less you have to do with your hands the better, as it lets your eyes and ears have the front seat. A clatter of some archaic machinery in the distance, the tone of the narrator’s voice, and the atmospheric music that is triggered in the right places, make for some very immersive game play. Given that there’s no one else in the game, just you and the city, makes the experience all the more interesting.
The game is, in a sense, a work of art – and not just thanks to Unreal Engine’s graphics and details that make it so aesthetically pleasing. It takes time to delve deep into the meaning that might be behind the narrators’ words, or the elements of the strange world. Just as an abstract piece of art may become more meaningful over time the more it’s studied, the same applies to this game. Investing time in the game and exploring will help dig down into the deeper meanings that weave their way through the game story.
Exploring the world through the eyes of a damaged mind is not for everyone. However, the experience is insightful, and can be rewarding for those who venture through the game. Several games developers have forged ahead with this new direction for games of this design – my gut feeling is that it is only the beginning.
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The Old City: Leviathan is available now on Steam.
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