14 DAY TRIAL // 
Puzzle platformers are a dime a dozen nowadays as a lot of independent developers first try their hands at making 2D titles just like the ones they played back in the early days of gaming.
Spanish developer Beautifun Games also followed this strategy but, fortunately, added quite a few new elements, not to mention a bold art style, to the classic recipe.
The result is Nihilumbra, a lightweight game that puts players in the shoes of a small being trying to escape the void while exploring the world and finding its place in it. In order to make the title stand out, plenty of different powers are acquired throughout the story.
Can Nihilumbra deliver a great experience or should the void devour it? Let's find out.
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Nihilumbra focuses on a small being that's escaped the all-powerful Void. It takes a special approach to storytelling, as the adventures of the small being are brought to life through the voice of a narrator who constantly questions the player’ motivation and goals, while providing different details about the powers you acquire, the environments you explore, or the enemies you'll meet.
The result is a pretty great experience that even has a twist towards the end that puts everything into a bigger perspective. The voice actor is also quite good and manages to sound rather human, not just some rogue spiritual entity.
In terms of gameplay, Nihilumbra follows the puzzle platformer recipe, as the small being can jump around the environment. What makes it stand apart is a set of different powers acquired through exploration. These take the form of colors, which can be smeared across the environment on the ground, walls, or on ceilings.
Each color has a different property, from blue, which turns into ice that accelerates an object's velocity, to green, which makes things bouncy, and other such hues. These slowly enter your arsenal as you explore the different environments and the pace is quite good, giving each power enough scenarios so that it won't confuse anyone.
Besides using the colors to get around, you must also employ them when dealing with the different foes that the void throws at you. These various monsters can be burned with the red color or you can use the bouncy green to make bullets ricochet into them.
In some cases the solutions may not always come to you right away, but these moments are very few and far in between, as Nihilumbra manages to keep a pretty smooth difficulty curve.
Things get really hectic at the end of each zone, as the void starts invading it in order to get you back. You're then forced to run away and solve new puzzles as fast as possible, in order to make your escape. There are a few scenarios where a trial and error procedure is needed, but the pretty common checkpoints make respawning less annoying.
Unfortunately, during these void chase moments, one of the main downsides of the game appears, as the level side scrolls based on the void, not on the player, meaning you'll have to sit at the edge of the screen and sometimes to leaps of faith, hoping that a huge drop won't await you.
Another annoying issue is the power switch mechanic, as you can either use your scroll wheel to jump through the different colors, or click the orb in the upper right side of the screen. Both these methods are a bit clunky and slow, which gets really upsetting during the Void chases, when you need to quickly swap between powers to get over the complex puzzles.
In terms of visuals, Nihilumbra looks pretty interesting, using a watercolor-based method to display the environment and a more nuanced one when it comes to the main character and his enemies. It may not be to everyone's liking, but the effects are rather good for an indie project.
In terms of sound, the orchestral score is haunting, to say the least, managing to make both the void and the environment feel daunting to the player's small being. Some sound effects don't exactly fit into the whole experience, but the great narrator manages to make up for such small problems.
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Nihilumbra is a great puzzle platformer that brings new ideas and novel gameplay mechanics. While it may have a few small problems, it offers a lot of value and a philosophical story for a great price.
