Close to the Sun Xbox One review: It doesn't fly close enough

Source: Tempest in a Teacup

When you open up Shut to the Sun, the first thing that comes to mind is Bioshock. Beyond just the font, which is the same, the plot is similar. You have to take a boat to the middle of the sea to board a mysterious scientific vessel that's become a home for the best the world has to offer. You lot're and then thrust into a mystery where you lot're surprisingly involved and have to overcome experiments gone wrong and the hubris of man to brand it out alive. Yes, definitely familiar.

Shut to the Sun, luckily, does enough to move beyond Bioshock's shadow. It'southward a horror exploration game that leans heavily into the latter chemical element while crafting an intriguing mystery based on everybody's favorite late 19th-century mad scientist Nikola Tesla. It's a breezy six hours long. It manages a few good scares while also edifice a version of this era of scientific advancement that feels both rooted in history and fresh, especially to those who accept a passing notion of names like Tesla and Edison. Developers Tempest in a Teacup had a vision, and it's all clear and apparent in the last product.

While the game came out on PC in May, it's now out on Xbox Ane, forth with the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch. Does Shut to the Sunday manage to live up to its lofty title, or is it worth a skip? Does having it on a console improve it in whatever mode?

Horror and Tesla

Shut to the Sun

$30

Bottom line: While the game has an intriguing premise, an attractive art style, and sits at a breezy length, it doesn't do enough. Information technology wants to fly close to the sun, only it can barely get off the ground.

Pros:

Enough room to explore
Slap-up art style
Good length
Who doesn't beloved Tesla?

Cons:

Scares aren't consequent
Becomes repetitive
Relationships are shallow
Story has besides many loose ends
Xbox version has technical problems

Close to the Sun: What I liked

Source: Storm in a Teacup

The game jumps quickly into setting upwards the mystery. You lot play Rose Archer, a journalist who receives a mysterious letter of the alphabet from her scientist sister Ada who's been working with Tesla on Helios, a gigantic vessel that's get a makeshift city for people at the meridian of their Stalk fields. She needs your help, and as you approach Helios, you realize that things have certainly gone awry. There's nobody to greet you, a lot of the lights are out, the doors are locked, and, equally you lot apace find, there are bodies everywhere. It doesn't seem like the best place to become work done.

While the pacing is slow at first, the initial mystery is plenty to keep most players occupied through some grindy parts. For case, it takes a while to meet Aubrey, a man trapped in maintenance that reaches out to you via your advice device, and who becomes i of the prominent phonation guides in the game. The stakes go properly raised, but simply after you lot spend twenty-thirty minutes trudging through the living quarters looking for various keycards and clues.

You might call back of Bioshock, simply luckily, Close to the Sunday does enough to motility beyond Bioshock's shadow.

Plus, the aesthetic adds to the enjoyment and how far the player is willing to requite into the game. Setting it in an alternate universe where Tesla'south company Wardenclyffe not only got off the ground only managed to become successful enough to attract all the world'due south acme scientists allows the designers to have fun with the gears, steam, and brass that dot every level. Tesla coils are everywhere, which is a great style element, only too creates obstacles that the thespian has to get around.

Overall at that place isn't besides much to worry almost when traversing levels beyond occasional tesla coils gone awry and some blue mist. The game mostly lets you lot explore each level and consummate quests so you tin can move on. It wants y'all to take you fourth dimension and find collectibles in the form of newspaper clippings, company memos, and other documents. Some flesh out a subplot about how Edison might've been sending corporate spies into Helios (more than on this later) or just show off other famous scientists that have visited. You get a skillful idea of what life might have been like before everything went to hell, which then helps to explain why Ada might've moved there.

While the game takes its time, it does know when to upwards the ante. In that location are two main threats: a rogue killer with a knife and something more than paranormal and the game balances when each rears its caput. With each, yous don't take whatever ways of defense; but your sprinting. There are a few sequences where you have to run downwards unknown corridors to escape from certain terrors. These are the toughest parts of the game — and I died quite a few times, merely luckily the game autosaves often — and examination your reaction fourth dimension. One tiny mistake and you're dead.

One small annotation: Close to the Sunday creates clean scares, where something might bound out at y'all just when you're looking at information technology. Information technology's a game design trick that's only fascinating if y'all're into the technical details, but it's effective.

Close to the Lord's day: What I didn't like

Source: Storm in a Teacup

While Close to the Lord's day has a lot of pieces that work separately, put together, they don't add up to much. The biggest disappointment here is that there could've been so much more than. It's why after completing the game and sitting downward to write this review, I plant that not a lot of elements stuck around.

For example, there are monsters that, at points in the game, chase you around, and can tear y'all apart. Considering where they come up from, you'd think they'd be all over the ship. Still, there are but a scattering — perhaps 2 or three — that you encounter. There may be more running effectually Helios that you don't run into, but there aren't enough to be threatening. It feels inconsistent, like the developers simply pull tricks out of their hat when it's user-friendly or makes sense for the story.

While the narrative has a lot of potential, it never quite lives up to what could take been.

The same goes for the flashback mechanic that becomes more prominent as the story goes on. Rose will see the glowing outlines of people and what they were doing on the ship. It helps in certain areas where you might not know where to become, only it only appears when the game writes itself into a corner. Is there no way for Rose to know a bit of information? Throw in some paranormal elements to help her out.

The horror also only seems to come up into play when the game needs it to, whether it's to arrive the way of Rose's progress or to make an otherwise tiresome area more exciting. At first, this works to keep the role player's centre rate up, but they don't happen enough to exist consistent. They also, over time, go repetitive, making each encounter seem like a chore.

While the narrative has a lot of potential, it never quite lives up to what could have been. The crux of it is clearly the relationship between Rose and Ada, but y'all never get enough particular to help justify why either would take chances their lives for the other. In that location are glimpses — like how their female parent died while they were young — but their interactions stay on the surface. I don't know anything near either character beyond that Rose is plucky and sarcastic, and Ada is adamant to a fault. The simply reason given for why Rose would put herself into danger for Ada is that they're sisters, which isn't plenty.

A lot of the various threads, specifically that 1 virtually whether Edison was planning on demolition, get unanswered or are dropped and forgotten. The main plot virtually Ada's research and how she may have gone too far does accept an catastrophe, just information technology feels rushed. The game ends on a definitive note, merely there was even so a lot that could've been included. Information technology reads like Storm in a Teacup wanted to release DLC or had ideas simply didn't have the time to include them.

Close to the Sun is an feel that inadvertently hinges on unfulfilled promises. The scares never arrive enough, nor are they consistent enough to keep the tension at a satisfying level. The character relationships are dull, and the game itself is filled with conveniences that take away from the awe and surprise of playing. I wouldn't be shocked if, for many, the game is forgotten quickly.

Xbox problems

The Xbox version of the game has a couple of pocket-size problems. At one point, I left the game on intermission for a bit, and it decided to restart. Information technology saved my progress, merely I still had to become through the level again. Since the game saves often, this was more of an badgerer.

Other times, however, the constant saving became an issue, particularly in some of the harder sprinting sequences where I died constantly. It wouldn't restart me at the outset of the level only at different points throughout, which meant that I was respawned in front end of the threat a few times and in front of where I had to get at others.

Bottom line

Source: Storm in a Teacup

It's easy to see how the game could've been astonishing. Information technology has a singled-out mode; while it's reminiscent of Bioshock, it manages to stand apart considering of how well it meshes with the story and characters at its core. Information technology too understands how to let the player wander and explore, letting them soak in more of the world.

Even so, despite its ambition, there's nothing else to assistance the game stand up autonomously from its peers. It's an piece of cake, occasionally fun romp through a steampunk earth, but it never goes far plenty. The scares aren't that scary, the exploration isn't that open up, and the story doesn't terminate in a identify strong enough to justify all the mystery and build-up. Information technology's a game that wanted to be Icarus and wing, ahem, too close to the sun, but couldn't even manage to go likewise far off the footing.

Steampunk horror

Close to the Sun

Who doesn't love some Tesla?

Shut to the Sun has an intriguing premise and a great fine art manner, and so it might be worth it for a quick run fourth dimension and its relatively depression price on Xbox. Plus, who doesn't dearest some Tesla coils?

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