Genre: | Platform |
Release Date: | 15th November 2022 |
Somerville follows a family, with players taking control of a father in a rural setting dealing with the aftermath of what appears to be a full-scale alien invasion. There are shades of Close Encounters in the opening sequence, where soft lighting and the quiet of an evening in a rural home spiral out of control when otherworldly events begin. Without any dialogue, the emotional connection between the family you see is told through body language and a clear sense of urgency and desperation.
There’s an on-the-run approach to a lot of the early parts of the experience, where you and the family dog are navigating through campsites and other post-apocalyptic locales in search of your family. It’s a clear and well-executed emotional setup to latch onto, though the addition of ambiguity and the strangeness of alien structures and supernatural powers add a definite dose of otherworldly.