EA brought another impressive indie title, Sea of ​​Solitude from Jo-Mei Studio. Again, this is a straightforward artistic project, but now focused on psychological topics. It deals with inner demons, relationships between people, in the family and basically introduces common problems in an unconventional form.

Cornelia Geppert, the author of the game, reworked her experiences and emotions after breaking up and gave her a deep emotional side. The experience of drawing comics helped her complete the game with impressive visuals. The whole thing can be compared to Journey, Ico or Rome. Along your way, you are absorbing the atmosphere of the world, and all this is complemented by story-telling dialogues.

You're in the role of Kay, a young girl who suddenly appears in a flooded world. She doesn't know where she is, she doesn't know what's going on, she doesn't know why she's a black monster. He only has a boat on which he sails through the darkness, not knowing where. Until another little girl comes to her and gives her light and starts to accompany her through this dark world.

The gameplay itself is based on a boat trip, but it only sails through certain parts of the city. Then you always get off and you can expect simple puzzle tasks that you have to solve in the world. Whether it is to open the gate or destroy the monster that stands in your way. Since monsters do not like light, you will use it to dispose of them. You will have to find a place in the environment where you activate the light and then point it at the monster. It will always be a few lights.

At the same time it will not be the only game mechanics, they will gradually expand and you will see little demons that you will escape in the rooms, or you will get your helpers, who will help you get to inaccessible things. However, the whole basis of the game will be in vacuuming evil energies. This happens every time you come across a problem that they meant and that can be resolved. You'll collect them in your backpack and lock them there so they don't get out.

They will all be, of course, metaphors for real people's problems, Kay's problems, which gradually realize that monsters are human and all need help. At the same time, since she is a monster, she also needs to help herself. He has to solve his problems. It must solve everyone's problems to get back home. So you have about 4 hours long journey, which will be impressive and full of dialogues, which make dark demons beings who know and talk about the situations they have survived and who got them where they are. Without any spoilers, I can say that there will be problems in school, bullying, the coexistence of children and adults and their gradual problems, separation, as well as the topic of relationships and misunderstandings.

The whole story will offer an impressive story, but maybe the puzzle elements could have been more challenging, but from my point of view in this style of play, it's not a challenge as much as a journey itself. There is no need to wait for any extreme gameplay, it is necessary to focus on the world itself, the atmosphere and what the game wants to tell us. In this, it is very similar to Inside, which was also based on the rendering of the world and the whole link of the game.

The visuals are great, not about details, but about art style, impressive workmanship, darkness and color, as well as the countries you visit. Everything has its meaning in the given section and various analogies with the topic. There is a flooded town, arid city center and an icy landscape. Each part associates with another part of the story and another part of the girl's soul. The visual style reminds Ghibli of Studio or Rime, but more tight and detailed, both in environments and impressive dynamic water and other effects in gaming mechanics.

Everything is very well processed and at the same time optimized even surprisingly to this level of visual. Although it is drawn in cartoon, the details are very good. On the GTX 970 it ran nicely at 4K - 30-40 fps, so you don't have to worry about performance at lower resolutions and weaker cards.

What could be better solved on the PC is the control of some elements. The actual control of the character and the movement of the camera is cool, although sometimes the special control of the ship flips. Rather, there is a problem in aiming lights in puzzle areas. While holding the gamepad lever and aiming where you need it, you must move and translate the mouse for a long time to point where you need it. This is not a big deal as you are not limited in time, but lengthy and sometimes you may not know exactly what to do. And I think one key wasn't predefined at all.

Visual, of course, completes the sound side, which is especially important very well processed character dubbing, which accompanies virtually the entire game. To this is added slow music to underline the atmosphere.

Overall, Sea of Solitute is an impressive way to human relationships in great visuals and with interesting game mechanics. The game is not long, but for such an artistic and psychologically tuned matter is 4 hours just the right length. At the same time the authors were able to add game elements and the title could not be repetitive or boring. However, do not expect deep or challenging gameplay. Still, the game is impressive and still has something to tell you.