The Fall

Overview

The Fall is a side-scrolling adventure game with action elements mixed in. It was funded via Kickstarter and released on Steam on May 30th, 2014.

The game is episodic, with the second and third episodes coming some time in the future.

Gameplay

The player controls A.R.I.D., a combat suit AI, in a side-scrolling action/adventure game.

A.R.I.D. can use a flashlight to highlight certain objects in the environment, some of which she can interact with. The game utilizes an inventory system, which has to be used to solve many of the game's puzzles. The puzzles consist mainly of item combinations, environmentally specific actions and dialog trees.

Aside from the puzzles, there are also some action elements mixed into the gameplay. A.R.I.D. can shoot a gun to fend off enemy security droids, while either taking cover behind objects in the environment or using the camouflage function built into her suit.

Story

The Fall is about A.R.I.D., a female, artificial intelligence system that has been integrated into an armored combat suit. The combat suit A.I. becomes activated, and autonomous, when the human inside it is rendered unconscious after falling from an undisclosed location into a derelict underground facility.

A.R.I.D. awakes in a half-initialized state, with very little control over the suit and its functions. She has to find a way to override some of her main functions if she wants to prevent the human from dying, but has trouble doing so because of her programming.

On her journey to save the human, she encounters a friendly mainframe A.I. with a quirky personality, who is trying to help her. Meanwhile, another A.I, the "Caretaker", tries to stop A.R.I.D. The Caretaker interrogates A.R.I.D., finding her programming faulty. Through the rest of the game, the Caretaker stalks A.R.I.D. and tries to shut her down for de-purposing.