Stela (Review) – Xbox One
Anyone who continues to say that video games cannot be art really aren’t paying attention. It feels like every time that we take two steps forward, we end up taking one step back. This year it was announced that the writer’s guild would no longer have an award for video games, which is beyond preposterous. Thank goodness there are games like Stela, the new puzzle platformer from Sky Box Labs, to remind us that games are, in fact, art.
As soon as you boot up Stela, you’ll immediately have flashbacks of Limbo and Inside, but is that a bad thing? If the worst thing that can be said about your game is that it reminds you of a couple of masterpieces, I would say you’re doing alright.
With no discernable story, it’s up to the player to create a backstory and motivation as they traverse this beautiful atmospheric world. You’ll be taken on a journey, tasked with hiding from gargantuan beasts and underground snow monsters, while solving puzzles in order to move from one location to the next. You’ll often be using muscle memory to avoid obstacles as you finally make your way to the rainbow bridge at long last.
Stela is one-part platformer, one-part puzzle game, with even some rhythm-like sequences thrown in just to spice things up.
Game play is simplistic, but don’t confuse that with easy. The only real controls you have here are movement, jump, and grab. These are all the mechanics you’ll need to traverse this treacherous world in order to arrive safely to your destination. Sometimes the controls want to interfere with each other, and you may find yourself dying because you want to jump – but the character is trying to climb or vice versa. Moving forward will allow you to climb any ledge that you can reach, but sometimes they are just out of grasp and require a jump instead. There is an achievement for completing the game without dying, which may be hard to obtain without multiple playthroughs due to the aforementioned control issues.
In the early portions of the game you’ll be moving around sneakily as you try to remain hidden from anything that wants to kill you. This includes everything from the aforementioned beasts to a hailstorm of fiery arrows raining down on you. As the game progresses the puzzles will become more intense and you’ll need to use objects in each environment in order to move on.
The world is beautiful, but fairly drab at the same time. Objects that are there to be manipulated will usually have a splash of color or a sheen to them, making them stand out just enough for you to realize they have some importance other than just lying around. Stela would be classified as a 2.5D platformer, so you’ll need to explore a little more thoroughly in all directions as you look for ways to complete each level. Thought there is very little backtracking in the game, you may need to double back from time to time in order to solve puzzles and carry on.
Each level has a distinct look ranging anywhere from a war-torn battlefield to snow covered mountain tops. In addition, each level also has a set of rules that you’ll need to figure out in order to move on to the next one. Sometimes this means running as fast as you can through the snow in order to avoid your demise, or simply sneaking by undetected as you try to outsmart the monsters that want nothing more than to kill you where you stand.
In the end, your journey is rewarding with a beautiful, albeit challenging ending that is dangerous as it is beautiful.
The graphics are stunning, each world is beautiful in an almost apocalyptic kind of way, and the journey reminds us of Robin Williams in What Dreams May Come. The soundtrack may be the area where the games shines the most. The haunting melodies that play as you move through the world paint a picture of what’s to come and bring the game to life in a way that the only music can. It is easily one of the best soundtracks of year.
Recommendation: If you love Inside and Limbo, play Stela. If you love platformers, play Stela. If you love puzzle games, play Stela. It may not always feel original when compared to those other games, but how many games do feel completely original anymore? You could do a lot worse than be compared to such incredible games.
Check out our Review Guide to see what we criteria we use to score games.
*Stela was given to the reviewer by the publishing company but this fact did not alter the reviewer’s opinion*
