{"id":109,"date":"2016-11-15T23:00:43","date_gmt":"2016-11-16T04:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/?p=109"},"modified":"2016-11-15T23:00:43","modified_gmt":"2016-11-16T04:00:43","slug":"game-ramblings-24-thomas-was-alone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/?p=109","title":{"rendered":"Game Ramblings #24 &#8211; Thomas Was Alone"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mikebithellgames.com\/thomaswasalone\/\">More Info from Mike Bithell<\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Genre<\/strong>: Puzzle\/Platformer<\/li>\n<li><strong>Platform<\/strong>: PS4<\/li>\n<li><strong>Also Available On<\/strong>: Steam, PS3, Vita, Mobile, Xbox One, Wii U<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>Thomas Was Alone<\/em> is ostensibly a game about colored blocks. \u00a0At its core it takes a relatively simple visual style, and mixes it with simple 2D platformer mechanics in ways that have been done before. \u00a0However, by being extremely mechanically tight, and by having a great\u00a0atmosphere that happens along side of it, it becomes one of the best platformers I&#8217;ve played in\u00a0recent times.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s really two things that stood out about\u00a0<em>Thomas Was Alone\u00a0<\/em>compared to most platformers, and both of them directly tie into\u00a0how the blocks are treated as individual characters. \u00a0The title of the game is no mistake, as each block is treated as a separate character within the game&#8217;s story. \u00a0Each block has its own unique personality that is exposed as the story is told. \u00a0Whether it&#8217;s the titular Thomas who is always taking note of the world around him and really doesn&#8217;t want to be alone, or Chris, who is initially a bit of a grump, but eventually ends up falling in love, or any of the other characters that you meet along the way, each block is elevated to a full character simply through fantastic writing \u00a0and great narration. \u00a0The overall characterization\u00a0that is gained just through passive narration is\u00a0reminiscent of games like\u00a0<em>Portal<\/em>, where the depth of the game&#8217;s universe is a lot more than expected at first glance.<\/p>\n<p>The individual character traits then extend directly into gameplay, giving each individual character their own style. \u00a0The combinations of characters in each level then determine how the puzzles proceed in each level. \u00a0For example, Thomas is the base character, and simply jumps a normal height. \u00a0James has the same traits as Thomas, but has reversed gravity. \u00a0Sarah can double jump, Chris has a short jump, but it also much smaller size and can fit through gaps, Laura can be used as a trampoline, etc. \u00a0Each new character introduced adds another layer to the overall experience until you&#8217;re eventually completing puzzles using the entire gang&#8217;s unique abilities to finish up levels.<\/p>\n<p>All of this is tied together in a package that is extraordinary in how reliable the mechanics all are. \u00a0There were no situations in which I felt like I was misjudging my jumps or unsure of where I was trying to get to. \u00a0New characters would seamlessly integrate into my puzzle solving experience as soon as I learned what their ability or benefit was. \u00a0The game, as is appropriate in puzzle games in general, was never about the where, but the how of finishing each area.<\/p>\n<p>I think in the end the best thing I can really say about <em>Thomas Was Alone<\/em> is that I accidentally finished it in one sitting. \u00a0Sure, it was only about 4 hours long, but there&#8217;s not many games that I play for four hours straight, and even fewer where I don&#8217;t even realize that four hours had gone by. \u00a0I suppose I should have gotten to this one sooner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>More Info from Mike Bithell Genre: Puzzle\/Platformer Platform: PS4 Also Available On: Steam, PS3, Vita, Mobile, Xbox One, Wii U Thomas Was Alone is ostensibly a game about colored blocks. \u00a0At its core it takes a relatively simple visual style, and mixes it with simple 2D platformer mechanics in ways that have been done before. &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/?p=109\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Game Ramblings #24 &#8211; Thomas Was Alone&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":110,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,6,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-platformer","category-ps4","category-puzzle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=109"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":111,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109\/revisions\/111"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}