If you were to ask any of your gamer friends to give you their pick for the most overrated game of all time, you’d probably be shocked to find that a few critically and commercially acclaimed games make their list. I know for a fact some of the contributors to this site have a complete and utter disdain for the Halo, Gears of War and The Elder Scrolls franchises. For me, Inside ranks up there pretty close to the top of my list, with a few others we won’t go into right now. I mention this game by name because the newly released Stela retreads almost the exact same ground.

Stela is an atmospheric puzzle game in which you guide a young girl through the final moments of a dying civilization. In the same vein of Limbo or the previously mentioned Inside, the game requires you to use stealth, light puzzle solving, and some platforming to make your way through the varied landscapes en route to…. something. I’m not being purposely vague to avoid spoilers; I really am perplexed as to what exactly I witnessed throughout the game’s two-hour runtime. Where the games that clearly inspired it provided a unique mystery to solve, this iteration of essentially the same game gives little backstory or motivation and gives even less in terms of a conclusion once the abrupt ending and credits have rolled. It’s simply a game that exists and has nothing substantial to say and left me with more questions than answers at the end.

The one thing this excels in is the atmosphere, especially in the early chapters. The muddy, muted tones set a nice contrast between the background and the white garbed protagonist but slowly become extremely dull as the game outstays its welcome. The music only added to the negative experience, not by being joyful or relaxing, but by pushing my anxiety to its breaking point due to the ominous tones. It’s hard to put the sounds on paper, but it’s as if these segments were recorded when the musicians were drunk or playing without direction, resulting in some of the weirdest ambient noises I’ve ever heard. Sadly, the final act fails to live up to this both audibly and visually, seeming to switch up themes from light horror to hard Sci-Fi out of nowhere.

Transitions and pacing are both major issues throughout the short run time. From start to finish, some of the more interesting segments are over in what feels like seconds, whereas some of the least thrilling gameplay drags on for what feels like days. One of the more obnoxious portions demonstrating this is when you complete the same set of actions with only minor variances while you’re evading or disposing of the varied creatures the game throws at you. When it comes to switching from set piece to set piece, you’re treated to a black screen with the title in the lower corner, as if it needs to remind you what game you’re playing, only to appear in a new area with no explanation of how or why you’re there.

If you’ve played any of the games I’ve referenced in this review, you know what the game is going to play like, but sadly, most of the puzzles are downright sloppy and feel like something a first grader could solve in little to no time. Move a box here, flip a switch there, move on, rinse and repeat. These take place between the extended scenes that depict you running across the screen from left to right with nothing of substance involved. This happens so often that it felt like a bland walking sim on a 2D plane. Late into the game, a few of the puzzles require a bit more trial and error, but even then they are extremely simple once you figure out the new mechanic. The stealth segments fall into the same boat – they exist but lack tension or difficulty. There are a small number of chase encounters that managed to reel me back in for a short period of time, but then the poor pacing struck and before I knew it they were over and I was back to wishing for the credits to roll so I could uncover the mystery, which never happened due to the abrupt ending that forced me to draw my own conclusion.

From a technical standpoint, Stela has a good backbone; the only technical issue I ran into is the jump button. The jump ability is one of two buttons that are actively used aside from navigating the game world, but it often feels like it didn’t register my input as quickly as it should’ve, requiring me to repeat some of the more taxing platforming sections. Luckily, the game reloads upon death pretty quickly, so frustration was kept to a minimum. I wish the same could be said for the tedium that set in due to the sub-par execution of the rest of the package, as it’s a barebones experience that didn’t include an interesting narrative, a satisfying ending, or anything new and exciting to set it apart from the other imitations on the market.

It could just be my dislike of Inside, but even when that wasn’t my cup of tea, it was a game that had an interesting narrative and was technically sound. Clocking in at around two-hours with no collectibles, alternate endings/paths, or substance, it’s hard to recommend Stela unless you really love PlayDead’s superior offerings. It’s a game, it has gameplay, but that’s about all it offers.  It’s a pale imitation that fails to live up to the premise it advertises on every level.

6 out of 10

Pros

• Extremely Atmospheric
• A Few Standout Chase Scenes

Cons

• A Cut and Paste Story That Never Pays Off
• Poor Pacing
• Jarring Transitions

Stela was developed and published by SkyBox Labs. It is available on X1 and will come to PC in 2020. The game was provided to us for review on X1. If you’d like to see more of Stela, check out the developer’s official site.

 

Here at GBG we use a rating method that you are more than likely familiar with – a scale of 1 to 10. For clarification, we intend on using the entire scale: 1-4 is something you should probably avoid paying for; 5-7 is something that is worth playing, but probably not at full price; 8-10 is a great title that you can feel confident about buying. If you have any questions or comments about how we rate a game, please let us know.

 

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