The Falling Sun [Early Access Review]
Game: The Falling Sun
Genre: First-person horror
Developer: LonePlanetStudios
Publisher: GrabTheGames
Copy supplied by developer
The Falling Sun is a first-person horror shooter in Early Access developed by LonePlanetStudios and published by GrabTheGames. This review is based on the first release of the game and no update has been made.
STORY
The story takes place in Burma after the end of World War II. You play as a lieutenant who is sent to look for a missing armoured colon. What he is gonna find are failed experiments and mayhem. There are currently two acts to the game, and so far little to nothing is explained and the story feels almost non-existent. Most of the story is told through letters found around the environment, which are poorly written and don't matter that much to the plot.
GRAPHICS
The game does look really good: even though it's made in the Unity engine, there are many video options including antialiasing and refresh rate that goes up to 120 FPS. The game also performs really well. Unfortunately, all the environments are uninspired and boring, there is only one enemy type and there is the most useless flashlight in all of gaming history (it basically only lights your character's hands).
GAMEPLAY
The two acts of the campaign are incredibly short, for a total of 20 minutes of gameplay. There is currently only one firearm, with apparently unlimited ammo. There is also a Survival mode featuring three maps where you have to fend off an unlimited wave of monsters.
CHALLENGE
The game is really, really easy. In the campaign you only meet a handful of monsters: they are usually far away from you because they kill you instantly and they all go down with two shots. In Survival mode you will fail because of the number of corpses that make the game's performance fall really fast.
SOUND
There are endless loops of loud and annoying background noise, as well as missing sound effects when sprinting. The monsters always start screaming when they spawn, and when playing Survival mode it feels like you are becoming deaf by the second.
REPLAYABILITY
There are no collectibles, no secrets, no achievements and no completion bonuses. The only real reason why you should replay this game is to read the letters scattered around the linear path.
Overall, I can not recommend this game at its current state: it is incredibly short and easy, there is no real reason why you should replay it and even though it is really well optimised, the sound department has to be improved and fixed. I will revisit this game when it comes out of Early Access, because it has really good potential.
Story: 5
Graphics: 7
Gameplay: 4
Challenge: 2
Sound: 3
Replayability: 1
ENJOYMENT: 4
FRUSTRATION: 2
