Another Sight Review

Originally posted on Next Gen Base.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but this beholder is unfortunately blind.

Another Sight has finally surfaced on the Switch, following a release on other platforms roughly six months ago. Another Sight follows Kit, a girl looking for her father, who takes a fall down into a whimsical and surreal underworld beneath the streets of London. Upon entering this world, Kit’s vision becomes impaired, limited to only seeing glimpses of the world through reverberated sounds.

Fortunately, a cat named Hodge is there to aid her on her journey, making use of his meow to resonate sound, allowing her a momentary break from the darkness. If this sounds like an interesting concept, I’ve got some bad news for you.

The core gameplay of Another Sight is made up of walking, climbing, and jumping. You know, standard video game stuff. You take control of both Kit and Hodge, to make your way through the labyrinthian underworld. Hodge is quick, agile, and more suited to climbing, whereas Kit is slower and more tactile, being able to interact with various things throughout the world. Because Kit is partially sighted, she takes things at a much steadier pace. If there’s no sound, and therefore light, you're limited to a walking pace. This also carries through to the vertical movement. Kit can only jump onto a ledge if she can see it. On paper, these are great gameplay nuances that complement the overarching narrative, but in practice, they’re incredibly frustrating.

Backtracking and replaying elements, after failing a section, is a drawn-out process when you’re only able to move at a snail’s pace, and you’ll undoubtedly be doing it a lot. You thought walking was slow? Wait till you navigate the room with an unnecessary number of ladders. Frustration is rife whilst tackling the puzzle and platforming elements in Another Sight, not because of their complexity but because of the less-than-perfect controls. Jumping, in particular, is in poor form, with Hodge’s vertical leap requiring awkward placement next to a ledge. And Kit’s lack of surrounding awareness causes you to continuously plummet to your death. The number of times I ran towards what appears to be a visible ledge, only to be denied a jump, doesn’t bear thinking about.

Whilst Another Sight has a somewhat unique concept, its gameplay is incredibly familiar and, unfortunately, fairly standard. The usual puzzle/story game tropes are here; platforming, memory puzzles, sneaking, and a whole load of lever pulling. Even its main concept, using both characters to solve puzzles, feels like a well-trodden path and one that isn’t as well implemented as in other games.

The story is its only saving grace, with a much-needed air of mystery, and the characters you meet along your journey are interesting. But even the story is let down by some choice direction. A major plot point midway through the game gets immediately shrugged off, and the ending, or endings, don’t offer any satisfying conclusions. After I completed Another Sight, I wondered what the point of it all was, which is never a great thing to take away from a game.

Arguably, the best feature of Another Sight is its art style. Cutscenes consist of largely static paintings with minor movement, but they suit the game’s whimsy to a tee. This style also flows into the environmental design, albeit with a last-gen muted brown and green filter overlaid. The only problem here is that you play half of the game as Kit, who, with limited sight, can only see within a small sphere around her, so you’re mostly looking at a muddied and darkened version of the world. This is amplified more when playing the game in handheld mode. The lowered resolution makes it extremely difficult to see where you’re headed, and the subtle flicks of light reflecting off the environment are completely non-existent. Resolution issues in handheld mode also make a puzzle in the final part of the game nigh on impossible to complete correctly because the displayed symbols blur into unrecognisable blobs.

It’s fair to say that Another Sight isn’t without flaws, but at its core, there is a serviceable puzzle/story game, albeit an incredibly basic one. I have a certain admiration for the game sticking to its guns with its theme, but this, unfortunately, comes at the cost of the gameplay. Technically, Kit should take her time to carry out tasks, but it’s simply not fun to play. There’s very little to praise with Another Sight, and at £35.99, I can’t honestly recommend picking it up.

Developer Lunar Great Wall Studios
Publisher Fish Eagle
Platforms Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Reviewed on Nintendo Switch

A generic puzzle game with very little to offer other than the frustration of repeating sections of the game due to its less than perfect controls.

4.5/10