Thomas Was Alone created by Mike Bithell, was originally released as a Flash-based browser game in 2010. After releasing on several different platforms the game now finds a new home on the Xbox One. But was it worth the wait?
At first glance Thomas Was Alone looks like a throwback to a much simpler time in gaming's history both in its graphics and gameplay and both of these observations are true. But ignore this game at your peril.
Thomas Was Alone takes place within a computer, where a network communication spike has caused some of the artificial intelligence programmes to become self aware. Each AI is shown only as a simple coloured shape and has their own abilities. Some of the abilities are floating on water, jumping although this ability is limited depending on the shape and size of the AI.
The thoughts and feelings of the AI's are brilliantly narrated by comedian Danny Wallace. The narration is so well performed that he won the "Performance" category at the 9th British Academy Video Games Awards in 2012 while the game itself was nominated in the "Story" category. The narration adds an amazing amount of charm and humour to the proceedings as do the various newspaper articles and headlines that splash across the screen at the beginning of each level.
There are ten levels to conquer here with each level having ten chapters and with a new character introduced at the start of each new level there is a lot to see here. As you progress the levels get harder and harder but nothing is ever too taxing and progress is made swiftly and surely.
The aim of the game is to move the AI through each level and into the corresponding portal which will be shaped to match the correct AI. Using each of their abilities you will climb, drop and float your way across a myriad of levels.
This most often requires using the AI's different abilities together to conquer a level. A shape with a small jump can get a boost from another AI or even float on the back of another. You will die quickly if you don't think about your next move in the later levels because the spike in difficulty is sharp and very brutal especially in the last ten chapters. But you have unlimited lives and you will reappear at the beginning of the lever or at a checkpoint depending on your progress.
Already included in the Xbox One version is Benjamin’s Flight DLC which has been free to owners of the game on other consoles since it was released earlier this year, but it’s still nice experiencing Thomas as a “complete” package from the get-go rather than waiting for an expansion to arrive.
All in all I loved my time playing Thomas Was Alone and look forward to Mike Bithells next game. The storytelling experience here is the games shining light. I never thought I would feel anything towards what are essentially squares and rectangles but everything here is pulled off beautifully. A brilliant experience from start to finish.
This was a review of Thomas Was Alone.
Review copy supplied by XCN.
Game: Thomas Was Alone.
Genre: Puzzle, Platformer.
Developer: Mike Bithell.
Publisher: Curve Studios.
Platform(s): Xbox One.