Sunday stream game as usual! I did all the endings on stream and later collected all remaining achievements on my own.
I played this under the impression that it was the successor to LIMBO and INSIDE, and given that there are many gameplay elements in common between INSIDE and Somerville as well as Playdead's co-founder working on the game, I think the comparison is inevitable. I will TRY not to judge based on this because they're not supposed to be in the same series, but both being sidescrolling physics puzzle game in 3D with selectable chapters in a linear story gives me grounds to compare them for having similar gameplay design.
!! Spoilers below !!
The controls are more or less the same as INSIDE - and honestly that's one of the things that I like about this genre? style?, that you basically have run and jump and interact with object and that's all. This game adds two additional buttons for differently-coloured interactions with the environment, though, and it adds another layer of creative physics puzzling while progressing through the game. It's simple, effective, and visually strong.
The thing with this, though, is that in combination with the story and the added environment detail, the graphical signposting is not as strong as INSIDE. I can see similar elements here, like using lighting to subtly highlight interactable/important objects, but the graphics are busy enough that it becomes too subtle in some cases...and very often this leads to me wondering if there's something in the scene that I can interact with that I completely missed. This is something that rarely happened in INSIDE (and now that I'm playing it, LIMBO) - the puzzles in the previous two games are very clearly defined by their restrictions, which say basically "You are restricted to y area. You have x objects and no more. You have to do z." Comparatively, Somerville feels more like "The puzzle is in y area. You have found x objects in this area so far. You have to do z." I wouldn't necessarily consider this a failing of the game/level design, but given this is built on the expectations of a person who has likely played either or both of the previous games, it gets a little frustrating sometimes.
The secrets for the ending were...less in the vein of INSIDE/LIMBO's collectible secrets and more in the vein of paying attention to things in the background. (Also, there were quite a number of things that I didn't quite understand the point of doing, though...like being able to go far into the background in the earlier part of the game...) I don't really know how to feel about this - I absolutely did not catch that the alien language existed on the first go and had to look up how to get the other endings. On one hand, it's a really cool idea and rewards the player for paying attention/learning about the aliens; on the other, knowing absolutely nothing about the alien language locks you out of all the endings except for about two of them I suppose. Maybe it's the game brain or nostalgia brain, but I would've enjoyed collectible secrets more for the experience of making progress towards a secret ending?
Not comparing the story to INSIDE is really hard, but I'll refrain from commenting on it that way here - it's a different game from a different studio, with elements that made INSIDE beloved but ultimately has a different intention.
It's not anywhere near horror...just sci-fi with aliens and occasionally a bit of suspense. I...don't have a lot to comment on here, really, I don't think this story is for me. The only thing that really bothered me was why the main character decided to leave the shelter with his wife and kid - I didn't see any sort of explanation for this and where they were planning to go. I think I'm only glad that it didn't drive headfirst into the family dies, guy suffers from mangst trope that seemed like a distinct possibility.
I think my thoughts make it sound like I'm very critical of this game, but I'm not, actually - the problems I had with it while playing were largely generated by expectations I had as someone who really loved INSIDE's level and environmental design. Set aside from those expectations, I found the game enjoyable for the most part. I wouldn't call it groundbreaking or anything because it follows the LIMBO/INSIDE formula too closely to be unique (nor is the story particularly gripping), but it's visually gorgeous, has some pretty cool puzzles, and there's a dog in it you can pet. I think it's worth playing.