The Shattering

by Aethyna May 4, 2020 | 1 Votes | 14 Played | 0 Reviews

10 rate

Genres:

Adventure

Graphics:

Labels:

Storytelling , Horror

Platforms:

Publishers:

Deck13 Delve into the troubled mind of John Evans alongside his psychologist, Dr. Richards, and learn the story behind his life and how he ended up in the hospital and subsequently onto Dr. Richards’ couch in this one-of-a-kind walking simulator, The Shattering. Play Now Similar Games

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Summary Plotline Gameplay Community Graphics/ Sound Conclusion

Summary

Delve into the troubled mind of John Evans alongside his psychologist, Dr. Richards, and learn the story behind his life and how he ended up in the hospital and subsequently onto Dr. Richards’ couch in this one-of-a-kind walking simulator, The Shattering. The game features brilliant writing and storytelling; bold, and sometimes shocking, visuals, sound and cinematography; and a tragic tale of a creative mind who fell off the deep end.

Plotline

Set entirely in the protagonist’s subconscious, The Shattering puts you through a rollercoaster of emotion as you follow John Evans’ life from his troubling childhood right up until the very moment which landed him in the hospital and eventually, onto the couch of a psychologist.

The story here is extremely well-written and spans four Acts with a few prologues or epilogues interspersed in between. Couple with brilliant cinematography, visuals, and sound, and you’ll get a well-told, albeit tragic, story that you’ll get to experience first-hand!

However a word of warning – if you’re emotionally sensitive, you might want to steel yourself a bit. Some parts in the game can be shocking, somewhat traumatic, depending on your personal past experiences, and scary.

Gameplay

The Shattering is a story-driven walking simulator so the gameplay mainly consists of following certain marked out paths and exploring the rooms that John Evans walks into. However, I did get stumped for a brief while during an early scene (at the hotel), where I had no idea what I needed to do in order to proceed – Hint: You need to flip the light switch. I think the game could have maybe highlighted that a bit more for that particular scene.

Now, although the game is pretty much linear, it isn’t at all too restrictive, allowing you, the player, some freedom to explore as you wish. There are hidden rewards for doing so as well. Personally, I’ve found several conspicuously hidden items that, when picked up, will trigger a special dialogue and a Steam achievement. So, if you’re an achievement hunter, you’ll do well to keep your eyes peeled and basically check out every possible corner for hidden stuff to interact with.

The emotional rollercoaster that The Shattering puts you on is also another highlight of its gameplay. The game has a tendency to start off showing a normal and happy scene and quickly pivots to the complete opposite, usually within seconds. That dive off the deep end can be rather drastic and took me off-guard a couple of times. By doing this, the game manages to deepen the impact of its plot twists, and I can’t say that I don’t love it!

Community

The story in This game is pretty well told but it does leave a few questions out for its players to speculate and discuss. This is where having a community would be beneficial. You could head on over to the game’s Steam discussion page and chat with other players to know their thoughts about certain plot points and even share some of your own.

Graphics/ Sound

What’s really striking about The Shattering is its liberal use of the color white, which gave the game that sort of “pristine” look which, in my opinion, further amplifies the darker parts of the story where the scenes usually shift rapidly from being brightly lit into dark, murky colors with some dabs of bright aggressive colors to highlight certain items in the scene.

The cinematography here is nothing short of brilliant as well. I really liked how the game changes the scene around you without you even noticing it, mainly during moments when your back is figuratively turned in the game. I’d liken it to a magician who is an expert in misdirection, focusing your attention on the cards in front of you and not noticing that he had deftly hidden a card in your coat pocket for you to find… to your amazement. In fact, The Shattering would do well in a film festival if it’s a film and not a game.

The game wouldn’t have done as well if all it had to rely on is cinematography and graphics – it needs to be complemented with soundtracks that work seamlessly with the scenes that are unfolding in the game.

For a narrative-driven game, I’d say that these three aspects are the trifecta of a masterpiece, in addition, of course, to having an actually great story to tell.

That being said, I should warn you that the first two Acts really made me nauseous after playing both of them in a single sitting. Those two Acts contain effects like constant screen-pulsing, which when combined with the game’s slight motion blur, is enough to make me really sick to the point where I had to stop or my dinner would just spill out on my keyboard. So, if games with motion blur have consistently caused you to feel sick, you might want to play this game one Act at a time… just to keep nausea at bay.

Conclusion

There are moments in my life as a game reviewer when I’d encounter a game that shook me to my core not because it’s terrifying but because of how good it is. The Shattering is definitely one of them, and being an indie game, this makes it so much more of a huge feat. The game is definitely worth buying and playing, and if you love a good thriller, The Shattering is one game you’ll want to experience.