An individual escapes his fate in an oppressive dystopia, moving across a landscape defined by monolithic yet crumbling industry: train yards, ironworks, storm drains and sinister research labs. The machine seems to produce nothing but grinds on, using people like meat. It's all stained concrete and rent steel, described in hard blue light, long shadows and little, glowing pinpoints of detail. Swathes of darkness and empty space dominate the small characters. There are many devious obstacles, but problem solving, subterfuge and ingenuity might just take our hero out of this nightmare.
I am describing Black the Fall, a new puzzle-platformer by the Romanian studio Sand Sailor, but I am also describing Inside, last year's insidious, brooding game in the same genre by Denmark's Playdead, creators of Limbo. This might not be the first time you've come across a comparison between the two, but it can scarcely be avoided. The design, mode, mood and art style of the two games are uncannily similar.
Sand Sailor told Polygon that the resemblance is down to a case of "artistic synchronicity", and certainly Black the Fall follows Inside's release too closely to be accused of ripping it off wholesale. (Though it's also true that a much earlier version of the game had a very similar look to Limbo; I think we can assume that Sand Sailor counts Playdead as a major inspiration.) Perhaps it's more interesting to look at where the games diverge, because Black the Fall is a subtly different beast - and not just in the matters of polish and production values, where it is clearly the work of a less experienced and well-funded studio.
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