Fort Solis Review (PS5)

Fort Solis is another narrative adventure that promises thrills and jump scares, while stumbling on an alien planet. As an interactive story experience, it has some arguments in its favor, but can the minimalistic gameplay justify spending time and money on this title? Read on to find out.

Fort Solis joins the thralls of video games that take place on the red planet. It is also a purebred walking simulator – literally, since 99% of the time our heroes are just strolling around - that offers as much in terms of gameplay elements as Firewatch. So, what are the things that the developers hoped will make it stand out? Well, the spectacular visual style and the cast of well-known voice actors, like Troy Baker.

It is a bit hard to call Fort Solis a game. It is better described as an interactive story, a thriller set in a sci-fi setting, that feels like a movie in which sometimes you have to push a few buttons. The atmosphere though falls short of any major cinematographic production, and as is the case with almost all representatives of this genre, once you have finished the story there is not much to do.  

The events unfold on Mars, where you will meet Jack and Jessica, the main heroes of the story. The two engineers are part of a crew running a mining operation, who get involved in something much more sinister than extracting ore. Things start to get shaky when in the middle of a storm, they receive a security alert from Fort Solis. Instead of going forward with his vacation plans, Jack decides to investigate, thus unknowingly becoming involved in tragic events.

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Although things start to build up as soon as he sets foot in the Atrium of the facility the story never really takes off. Every narrative nut and bolt you will encounter in Fort Solis you have already seen in other games and movies. It is not a bad narrative by any means, but it is highly predictable, and the developers seem to have an obvious soft spot for cliches.

The atmosphere which should have been one of the strongpoints of the game is often broken by curious choices. For one, no matter the danger or the events that unfold our heroes do not seem to be affected beyond the dialogues. They continue to stroll at a comfortable pace even after finding ominous pools of blood or even dead colleagues.

There are some scripted events during which they show us that they can run, but these are only a few in between. Most of the time they take their time to read personal logs, watch video recordings or go through other people’s personal belongings. Even when the tension reaches the highest levels of this game, they seem to just stroll around like tourists visiting a historical site.

Despite the brilliant voice acting due to the behavior of the characters and the narrative structure devised by the developers, you will find it hard to develop a connection with the two. There are some situations that create tension and are supposed to convey loss, but they fall flat and the emotional impact on the player is almost none. Even the end of the game feels lacking, and the tension does not manage to bring you to the edge of your seat.

This is also due to the fact that there are very few gameplay mechanics and most of them involve interacting with computers, reports of recordings. There are also quick time events, but with a few exceptions there is no real consequence if you miss pressing the buttons on time. The events keep unfolding and the game shepherds you towards the end conclusion imagined by the developers.

There are no puzzles and beyond finding some batteries placed in obvious spots or finding a couple of codes to gain access to some terminals, there is nothing to challenge you. You will collect posters, banners, audio and video logs and emails in order to piece together the background story and the events that led to the current situation, but even this fails to be engaging.

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It seems developers put a lot of effort into developing the atmosphere and the narrative, yet they missed the point by lightyears. The different interactions do not add anything to the overall experience, and they feel monotonous – just like going through the dark corridors waiting to reach the next door, beyond which you will find a new computer and more corridors.

The pace is extremely slow and at the end it feels like its only purpose was extending the playtime to around 4 hours. If you by any chance missed a collectible you can return in an attempt to find it, but why would you? There is not enough flavor in the game to make you go back for seconds.

The visual style is detailed and most of the time looks pretty good for a game developed by just 10 people. However, there are sections where the framerate drops inexplicably and the QTE prompts tend to stay on the screen even if the action is over. The voice acting as pointed out is outstanding, too bad the dialogues are so flat and uninspired that they ruin the work of the actors.

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The Good

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