Next Studios’ Iris Fall Graces Steam With Its Beauty

By: GeekyGamerGirl87

I will admit I love a good puzzle game. Especially if the game can pull you in and keep you captivated for hours at a time. Which is exactly what Iris Fall does. Developed and published by NEXT Studios, Iris Fall is a Puzzle Adventure game that feels like a Point and Click game but it’s hard to place it in that genre based on the controls of the game. However, the game is not only fun to play but is so beautiful that it does pull you in for hours at a time. However, before we go any further into the review. I would like to thank Next Studios for being so kind as to provide thedailygamepad.com with a  free review copy of Iris Fall.

When the game starts off, it appears that Iris is having a  nightmare. I will admit that I do not know if the little girl’s name is Iris or if the name Iris is a reference to the eyes that you see throughout the game. However, because I like to name my characters when I play video games and I thought Iris was a cute name, I decided that I was going to call the little girl Iris. Therefore, Iris wakes up from the nightmare in what appears to be her bedroom in a rundown building which is either a theatre or some sort of a huge clock tower. I say this because the first puzzle you solve is based in a theatre and the reference of the theatre is made throughout the game. I also say a clock tower because a lot of the puzzles seem to take place with gears and clocks. I am not sure if Iris is trying to escape or if she is simply exploring the area.

Although it doesn’t seem that anything is chasing her, so I have interpreted the story like this instead: Iris wakes up from her nightmare, and like any child who has a nightmare; is going to search for someone to talk about the nightmare with or receive comfort. However, there doesn’t appear to be anyone around but a black cat and therefore her journey has begun. As I stated before this is the way I interpret the story, so when playing the game, you may interpret it to be something else.

In terms of the controls, you can use keyboard/mouse, or you can manually set up the gamepad to control Iris. This is where I found the game even more intriguing, you take one look at Iris Fall and you automatically would think this was a point and click game. Which to me my brain had a hard time processing that this was not a point and click game. Yes, it has some of the characteristics of one, but because you use WASD to move Iris around, instead of using the mouse to move her around, by the definition of a point and click game, you can’t exactly call this a point and click game. This is in fact, a puzzle adventure game.

I will be honest and tell you that there are a lot of puzzles in the game. The puzzles at first start off simple and are straightforward. As time goes by, they start to get a little bit more difficult but not by a lot, which I enjoy because it does give you the opportunity to take in the atmosphere of the game and the surroundings of the game. The game is said to be a horror game, but I don’t feel like it’s really a horror game as opposed to being more of atmospheric. I didn’t exactly run across anything that was scary about the game, it was the atmosphere that pulled me into the game and I did anticipate something scary happening a few times but didn’t get anything that remotely made me think this was a horror game.

The art style of the game reminded me a bit of a comic book style and I loved that it did. I also loved that the game didn’t rely on using a lot of colors. For the most part, the game is done in a sort of noir style with an occasional color pop usually with the Iris of the eyes and the light on occasion. However, even this was done very artistically so that it’s not overdone, and it was appealing and pleasing to the eyes and senses.

Another thing that I enjoyed about the game was the gameplay itself. As stated earlier, Iris Fall is a Puzzle Adventure game in which you use WASD to move Iris around and the mouse button to interact with things. However, it should be noted that in the game that Iris also appears to bare the ability to travel amongst the shadows, and I love how the game makes that a known factor. So essentially you will travel, between being a person and a shadow person, and I love games that actually use that feature. I loved that it was incorporated into this puzzle adventure, as that seems to be a concept more so seen in a lot of platformer games. So, it was refreshing to see it in Iris Fall.

There wasn’t too much bad that I could say about Iris Fall, my biggest con was using WASD but that was only because my brain wanted this to be a point and click game. However, after a while, once I got used to using the WASD controls to move Iris around I found the game fun. The game does use a gamepad, I will admit that I use keyboard/mouse for the majority of the game but decided to give gamepad a try. In order to use a gamepad, you must go into the options menu and select gamepad manually. Once you select gamepad you can play the game with a gamepad and I will admit the game is even better using the gamepad and makes it feel more like an adventure game. So honestly, I like both sets of controls for the game.  So, the way you choose to play the game is solely up to your play style.

Overall, I can say that I highly recommend Iris Fall. The game is challenging but fun, the art style and atmosphere pull you in, and if you are a puzzle or adventure game enthusiast this a game you are going to want to have in your collection. I do sincerely hope that the game does extremely well because I would love to see this ported to the Nintendo Switch so that I could play it on the go. I will admit that is something I am looking forward to seeing when it comes to this game. If you would like to try Iris Fall for yourself you can purchase the game on Steam for the price of $14.99 USD.