Anyone
who appreciates the loneliness and isolation in games like Super
Metroid and Limbo
will fall immediately in love with Closure.
Winner of the DICE 2012 Indie Game Challenge, Closure is a
puzzle-platformer for PSN that taps into man’s primordial fear of the
dark in ways which few games has ever quite understood. One of the very
first things you’re likely to do in the game is walk just beyond a
light source and immediately fall to your doom. You see, the world of
Closure is sprinkled with light sources that not only illuminate the
world, but actually bring it into existence. Step outside the beam of a
spotlight or glow of a light bulb, and you’ll find yourself tumbling
down into a void of nothingness.
While black space in Limbo was
used primarily to advance the mood and atmosphere, Closure takes the
actual concept of darkness and weaves it into the game’s mechanics.
This creates an experience where the tone of the game is symbiotic with
how it actually plays. In the early levels, you only need to pick up a
light bulb and carry it across the level to the exit door. Simple
enough, right? Well, like all of the best puzzle games, Closure reveals
its intricacies slowly and intuitively throughout the experience.
You’ll soon find doors that need to be unlocked using a key, so your
goal becomes finding that item in the darkness, then making sure that
you bring it back to the door without losing it in a nebulous void. As
the game advances you’ll have to make flowers bloom using spotlights,
create gaps in walls using darkness, and collect moths that show
themselves only when illuminated.
