I recently got the chance to play Ever Forward and was really engaged in the story and the mechanics around the puzzles. As I have stated previously, puzzle strategy games are some of my favorite games. Ever Forward is unique in its own way and encourages everyone to check it out.
In Ever Forward, you start as a young girl on a beach without any context and a floating cube, whom for lack of a better name will be our floating companion cube. The game is done with low-poly in mind, but the primary character has some good detail work done, so it is not all just cubes. Low poly does not always mean the lowest detail. There is a lot of ways to create great textures and experiences with a low graphic cost. Ever Forward has accomplished this with some great contrasting colors and effects that make the experience memorable. You explore this island and start puzzle missions with you trying to finish them to cure the darkness in each section. Similar to Zelda Breath of the Wild, when you cleanse a temple or section. You then also get a little more information about what happened to your character after finishing each puzzle room. The cut scenes developed are also really well done. The cutscenes are great, and you can see an example of it in the trailer below. Indie games like this can bring anyone closer to the creators as if you were invited into their vision. Whatever happened to this girl and the world around her, it obviously is not great, and I encourage you to go to their itch.io page and check it out.
This game is really well done, and I enjoyed many experiences in this game. There are some things I would like to see improved, but overall this game was very enjoyable. If you want to know more about this game, continue reading and check out the more in-depth info below.
Solving Puzzles
The puzzles in this game are interesting and give me a Metal Gear Solid feel. I say that because there is a robot guard mechanic that has me looking for my cardboard box to hide so that I can get past it. In this, you must use noise and other objects to your advantage in order to get around them. It gets more complicated as you go on and find more sentry’s preventing you from going forward. You have to play through some more complicated mechanics and find the trick to get past it.
A nice additional item to the puzzles is that if your character falls off or gets hit by the robot lasers, it immediately restarts you right where you saved. And you can even create your own checkpoints. So if you make progress, you can immediately save it and continue from there when you are trying to figure out the next part of the stage. I do wish there were more mechanics in the game then what is given, but there is really nice and fun to figure out how to get past it.
A Dystopian World
An unexpected treat in this game was the story behind it. Many puzzle games forgo or have a very small story around the primary mechanic, the puzzle. This game has a very interesting story behind it—a world somewhere in the near future with advanced robots and a world that has some government unrest. You are a daughter of a scientist researching something that can be linked to why the world has gone upside down.
Where is everyone, what experiment, what is with the robots, these are all questions I had while playing and what happened to the world, and what did your mother have to do with the mess the world seems to be in now? The world is in a chaotic state, but it seems to start to heal itself by resolving these puzzles. I really enjoyed playing through this and seeing the world change around you as the puzzles are completed.
The Graphics and Audio
The game is a low poly style game but not in the traditional sense. By this, I mean, there is a lot of detailed texturing done to bring about a higher level of resolution without taking down the frame rate. This is not a blocky or a bad graphic game that comes up when you hear low-poly. This is completely untrue, low-poly games can have amazing graphics and are really just around the level of detail the artist puts into it. The game includes cutscenes that are great and executed really well.
The audio cues in the game are good, too, as is the music. I feel like it helped to connect the experience and what you are trying to accomplish. No sound made it hard to play the game or too repetitive to make me want to quit. Really well-done games are the ones that use audio and visual cues to keep players entertained and engaged. The effects like the laser or grabbing the blocks are done in a nice way that feels really clean. I was really impressed with this game.
Mechanics and Experiences
The mechanics of the game are well done. Each entrance to a puzzle has a glitch effect that does not feel like it is too much, and progressing through each level is linear. Still, you are brought back to an island you can explore that gives the player the sense of freedom and exploration that sometimes linear games take away by pushing the player down a specific road. I appreciate the feeling of going at your own pace and even being able to leave a puzzle and come back to it after thinking about how to get past it.
Puzzle games are generally my favorite, and I know others may not have it as their top 10. But this game had some really great storytelling themes and experiences that I think it is worth checking out and playing. A good story is always worth listening too. I had a blast playing this game and enjoyed trying to crack each puzzle level with my robot flying companion. Together we found mysterious and answers to some very interesting questions in this new world that I was thrown into. I hope you will also enjoy this game as much as I did.
Thank You
The game has many themes that will attract various gamers, whether its story, puzzles, open world, or even the music and sound if you enjoy games with a good audio profile. These game developers work extremely hard to make dreams and visions and share them with the world. They are often working day jobs on top of making these games and deserve some extra love even if it is just us downloading and playing them. Check out Ever Forward on Itch and experience this world for yourself.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this article. I hope you found it informative and interesting. It would mean the world to me if you shared it on social media. You can also join my mailing list and get more information on the latest games I have written about, polls, and deals around other indie games.