Fort Solis Review:

Fort Solis is a sci-fi mystery that leaves a little too much to the imagination. It is a marvel to look at, and has surprisingly renown vocal talent, but this narrative adventure is cut short by its mechanical limitations and relatively brief story.

Fort Solis takes place on the colonised surface of Mars sometime in the distant future. Our main character, Jack Leary, works from a neighbouring facility until his routine checks are interrupted by an alert from… you guessed it, Fort Solis. On comms with his partner Jessica, he breaks into the station to determine the cause of the distress signal. It starts innocently enough, with Jack remarking the various early space memorabilia and the outdated facilities of the station. Delving further still the facility is eerily quiet, that is until Jack happens upon a dead body of one of the crew mates, and obvious signs of sabotage on equipment. This is now a fight for survival against an unknown threat.

The grandeur of outer space is matched perfectly by the impressive and groundbreaking graphics that I was unexpectant of. As an indie title from a small studio, the level of fidelity and performance is impeccable. From the sheen reflecting off the glass panelling to the man made structures on the surface of Mars, this game looks good from every angle. Arguably this beauty sadly is wasted on overall uninteresting and repetitive environments. For instance, despite the surface of Mars looking grand, with the solar disturbances occurring and obscuring vision means these otherwise interesting environments are difficult to see. To add insult to injury, I think a number of notable locations are absent from the final game that would solve this problem of repetition. Perhaps being able to explore the original station that Jessica and Jack worked originally in, to juxtapose against the lonely and isolated Fort Solis. This doesn't diminish what they were able to create, and different areas later in the game grow to become more visually interesting.

Unfortunately, I don’t think our main characters are anything to ride the Mars Rover about. We have Jack, an older Mars colonist who is one day away from retirement, and his friend Jessica who stops at nothing to poke fun at him. The other main supporting role is Wyatt, the lead health advisor at Fort Solis. The game’s plot twists are not limited to the narrative, but actually extend to the vocal cast. For starters, Jack is voiced by the star studded Roger Clark, notable for his moving performance as Arthur Morgan in Red Dead Redemption 2. Wyatt however is voiced by the famous Troy Baker, notable for numerous famous roles he’s had. So it goes without saying that they do an amazing job, and overall the quality of the voice acting is top notch. The only problem I ran into was the ludonarrative dissonance of traumatic events happening in the main story, and not being replicated in the general storytelling and gameplay. For instance, after the dead body Jack acts understandably terrified and rattled. But in examining other interactable objects the tone shifts back to the lackadaisical and humorous tone that came before. It would’ve proved invaluable if there had been a steady progression of insecurity and fear that spiralled as the game continued.

The gameplay would be likened closely to the style of narrative adventure reminiscent to the Telltale studio archetype of games. The majority of gameplay is taken up by exploring the environment, interacting with objects and solving basic puzzles. Whilst on the offset this can appear as boring or repetitive, in actuality I believe this slower pacing of the game was intentional. The walking speed is intrinsically slow, with multiple long empty corridors to trek down before reaching your destination. I feel this contributes to the atmosphere of worry and fear of the unknown. The slow methodical saunter of the character adds to this as you are constantly spying over your own shoulder and second guessing every mundane random noise. What this is sorely lacking however was some kind of branching decision system that would have shifted the story in different directions. Without giving too much away, the ending and possible multiple endings are somewhat lacklustre and aren't as impactful as they could've been.

This game actually reminds me an awful lot of the playstation exclusive The Order 1886, released at the beginning of the PS4’s launch cycle. Much like Fort Solis, The Order was regarded highly for it’s next gen graphics but slandered for it’s weaker story and repetitive nature. A lot of these pitfalls and strengths are reminiscent of Fort Solis also, the shorter length and repetitive gameplay and lack of any diverse pathways means that a repeat journey is out of the question. All in all, I see great potential from the studio, especially as this is their first title, and will be on the lookout for any upcoming projects they have next with notable improvement.