Independent game studios have been able to create some stunning game worlds, filled with fantastic imagination. Another entry into this long list of visual treats is Another Sight from developer Lunar Great Wall Studios, a game that ties together a fascinating steampunk setting inspired by Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere and a cast of the most important people of the 1800s.
In Another Sight, players are put in control of a pair of characters: Kit, a precocious teenager, and Hodge, an incredibly helpful cat companion. With Kit's eyesight warped by a mysterious drop into an underground realm, the two need to work together to solve a variety of puzzles to help traverse the new world and solve the mysteries within.
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As they delve deeper into this steampunk setting, the pair meet plenty of the aforementioned major historical figures of the 19th century. Among them are the likes of Claude Monet, Nikola Tesla, and Helena Blavatsky, and each plays a part in the game's larger plot. It's a neat touch, each being used carefully to help give a larger context to Another Sight's shifted version of a London at the end of the Victorian era, taking on the role of a larger pastiche of the time period akin to Penny Dreadful.
The game world is certainly the most interesting part of Another Sight. All in all, it's a gorgeous setting to explore, at times beautiful and at others decaying, with occasional abstract moments thrown in that ignore the basic rules of physics. Even better is the way that it changes as the player swaps between Kit and Hodge, with Hodge showing the world in plain sight and Kit showcasing a more impressionistic palette.
The title's gameplay is primarily based around puzzles, going through the machinations of increasingly convoluted set pieces (although nothing as bad as the worst that The Legend of Zelda has)to move onto the next area and meet another important cultural figure. Kit's changed eyesight means that she has a reliance on Hodge to get a greater overall view, as well as squeezing through smaller gaps. In short, the two are codependent at a mechanical level, and this is compounded by the strength of the relationship between the pair as told by Kit's dialogue.
However, this dependence on one another does lead to some problems. Because the two are controlled separately, it means that a lot of the time players will end up covering the same ground. This becomes tiring, particularly given that Kit's movement speed becomes significantly lower when away from Hodge. It also means that the game's backtracking feels much worse due to the title's slow pace and by-default duplication of routes.
When the game then strays from more thoughtful puzzles into those that put an emphasis on platforming, things can get quite frustrating. Although Hodge controls much easier than Kit in these moments, both characters suffer where precision jumping is required, as the game is more like the original Prince of Persia than Mario. On top of this, those moments where stealth is necessary are perhaps even worse in this respect, feeling very out of place overall and perhaps not suited to the overall build of the game.
The end result is a title that unfortunately cannot quite combine its impressive ideas and visual design with truly engaging gameplay. Another Sight has a very well crafted world with a delicate use of real world people, but players may grow tired of its pace and more awkward elements of the puzzle mechanics themselves.
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Another Sight is out now for PC. Screen Rant was provided with a PC download code for the purposes of this review.
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