Somerville

 Xbox One
User Score
3.4

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 19 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 19
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 19
  3. Negative: 13 out of 19

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  1. Kaykat
    Dec 21, 2022
    2
    I really wanted to like this. I started good and I was interested to see where it went but it went downhill shockingly quickly. The puzzle mechanics are infuriating. I found myself in multiple situations where I knew exactly what to do but was unable to do so because of clunky controls and character movement. The fixed camera angles cut off the screen and make you walk into walls. PlayedI really wanted to like this. I started good and I was interested to see where it went but it went downhill shockingly quickly. The puzzle mechanics are infuriating. I found myself in multiple situations where I knew exactly what to do but was unable to do so because of clunky controls and character movement. The fixed camera angles cut off the screen and make you walk into walls. Played it all the way through, but experienced *severe* crashing during chapter 11. For some reason I had to go to the Home Screen and open the game again to get it to start. Almost gave up but actually managed to glitch my way through just to see what the end of the story was. I soon found out that it was terrible nonsensical and incomprehensible. I don’t like leaving bad reviews but I truly hated this game. It wasn’t worth the time.… Expand
  2. The-Light-Saber
    Nov 20, 2022
    1
    Another lesson I learned the hard way.

    This game tried to climb on Limbo and Inside reputation, but instead it came with an ugly cloned game with no purpose at all. As this game came from the cofounder of Playdead Studio (Limbo and Inside games maker), I expected a minimum level of quality that could make me enjoy the new experience, but everything in this game is a huge step down.    Another lesson I learned the hard way.

    This game tried to climb on Limbo and Inside reputation, but instead it came with an ugly cloned game with no purpose at all.

    As this game came from the cofounder of Playdead Studio (Limbo and Inside games maker), I expected a minimum level of quality that could make me enjoy the new experience, but everything in this game is a huge step down.

    The Gameplay is really bad, a 2.5D game, almost a walking simulator with simple to medium difficult puzzles, I know it is a linear game, but you cannot go any where except what the developers wanted you to be, if you skip a tiny pixel, you cannot proceed further and keep roaming until you find the accurate path.

    The camera angles are awful most of the time, and with a lot of obstacles and terrain in your way, makes finishing each level an achievement.

    The story, oh god help me here.....they tried to clone the same concept of the previous games storytelling, nonspeaking characters doing actions that let you figure out the story yourself blah blah blah...

    The problem in Somerville that unlike Limbo and Inside, that story is very superficial, Aliens invasion and person is escaping and looking for his family, WoW...How Genuine!!! that is not a spoiler by the way, you will get that the first 5 min of the game.

    They tried at the end to add some events with no common sense to give mysterious endings, but it just added salt to injury and made it worse and worse.

    You will literally lose the interest of playing after 30 min, and whatever you do, you will never care about the characters if they live or die, because it is so boring.

    I won't talk about the graphics much, I just played plenty mobile games with such better graphics, and this game for Series X.

    I played it on Gamepass, and even that I spent no money on this game, but I'm sorry for the time I wasted playing it. it is a big disappointment for a game I was waiting since I saw its trailer.    … Expand
  3. HealingToolbox
    Nov 24, 2022
    8
    Half Life, Limbo and Inside are all useful reference point for this oddball gem in the atmosphere-first genre.

    If forced to give it a narrative genre, Id say it's War of the Worlds meets Limbo and Inside--done with no words at all. SOMERVILLE is a first person emotional--not visual--perspective on shattering personal loss and trauma. Little Nightmares uses the same desperate personal    Half Life, Limbo and Inside are all useful reference point for this oddball gem in the atmosphere-first genre.

    If forced to give it a narrative genre, Id say it's War of the Worlds meets Limbo and Inside--done with no words at all. SOMERVILLE is a first person emotional--not visual--perspective on shattering personal loss and trauma. Little Nightmares uses the same desperate personal emotions.

    About 7/8 the way thru, Somerville drops its narrative thread altogether and--depending on your tastes--digresses or progresses to a number of "interesting scenes which didn't fit into the game" a handful of "game outtakes which I found visually and conceptually interesting.

    Somerville makes brilliant use of a mechanic new to me, turning liquid geometry into solid matter; and, back again to liquid matter. About half the puzzles involve this mechanic. I did not get tired of it.

    A GI commenter mentioned Cocoon, new game from Limbo designer. The trailer suggests it is all puzzles. The desperate, possibly cruel, use of shattering personal loss and trauma is gone in Cocoon. SOMERVILLE keeps this emotionality. This engaged so many players when Limbo (2013) first came out.
    If you are tired of superhero games made in Unreal engine which all begin to look the same, try SOMERVILLE. 8/10 if a lot of technical glitches, then lower score for you    … Expand
  4. Redfloda
    Sep 2, 2023
    2
    Terrible, boring and nonsensical…..
    It starts good and ends in chaos. It is slow and clunky. Puzzle repetitive, level also repetitive. Story could have been amazing but the last 30 minutes are a waste of time!

Critic Reviews

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  1. ZTGD
    Nov 22, 2022
    45
    So yeah… Somerville kind of sucks. The best parts of the game are when it focuses on the alien invasion aspect. The worst parts are everything else. Honestly, skip this game. It actually makes me worried for what Playdead has coming next because they have said they want to do more than just 2D games too and if they play anything like Somerville I’ll probably skip it.
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