Just released on Steam, Iris.Fall is ready to dazzle you with its simplistic monochrome art design mixed with its straightforward approach to adventure, exploration, and puzzle-solving. After awakening from a nightmare that sparks flashbacks to Alice in Wonderland, Iris sets off to explore her own “rabbit hole” accompanied by her black cat who often guides the way. Borrowing on one of my favorite game concepts from 2013’s Contrast, Iris.Fall turns light and shadow into playable puzzle pieces, allowing you to create traversable environments by arranging in-game objects to create shadows that Iris can explore by using conveniently placed books to swap between the real world and the realm of shadows.
Light and shadows are only a part of the puzzle mix and used mostly to navigate the stunningly gorgeous monochrome world of Iris.Fall; a world striking in its detail as this abandoned theater comes to life in a seamless mix of 2D and 3D environments and the occasional dash of color to accent critical moments of story or gameplay progression. Each new room introduces new puzzles that are totally put there for the sake of having a puzzle yet somehow manage to integrate into the world and make narrative sense.
While the game might appear to target casual adventure gamers, Iris.Fall is not without its challenges; occasionally tossing in the random super-hard puzzle early or midway into the game. There doesn’t seem to be a progressive level of difficulty, so you might spend 2-3 times as long solving an earlier puzzle than anything near the end of the game will take. Some puzzles are logical while others have hints to their solution nearby or even integrated into the puzzle itself. Some will have you cheering when solved while others will have you ripping out your hair.
The puzzle integration is quite stunning at times, especially in the clock tower where you are adjusting these M.C. Escher-style stairs by rotating them along two separate axis, both in the real world and the shadow world. Other times puzzles are more random in nature like these 3D Rubik’s Cube puzzles where you try to line up the spotlight squares with eyeball receptacles over the surrounding doors. Two of my favorite puzzles were actually in the same room; the first having you guide Iris through a series of paintings and the second guiding Iris and her cat across a giant mural while avoiding a flying bat that threatens to send her back to the start of the mural. Almost all the puzzles try to integrate light and shadow to some degree.
Iris.Fall is a gorgeous game that runs exceptionally well with smooth 4K visuals, yet scales nicely for even modest hardware. The simplistic art style looks just as good in 1080p with anti-aliasing taking care of any jaggies along the game’s many straight and contrasting edges. Iris has some smooth animation and the seemingly 2D levels pan and rotate in 3D. There is no spoken dialogue, but the score and environmental sound effects are topnotch, creating a soothing atmosphere for puzzle-solving. Controls are simple; mostly movement and one or two action buttons specific to each puzzle. There is some inventory management, but selected objects are smartly placed into the game world.
Depending on your proficiency for solving puzzles Iris.Fall can take anywhere from 3-5 hours to complete, which is admittedly short, but then again, this is only a $15 game. Also keep in mind that Iris.Fall seems to be targeting advanced puzzle gamers, and while some of the shadow navigation puzzles are super-easy, there are just as many other puzzles in the game that could be classified as super-hard. As with most games in this genre, your replay value will be limited.
Iris.Fall took me on a rollercoaster of emotions from awe and wonder, to thrilling success at completing a brain teaser to frustration and anger and getting stumped on several of the more challenging puzzles. It’s a sweet ride full of compelling imagery and thoughtful gameplay set in one of the more imaginative and memorable game worlds I’ve had the privilege to explore this year. If you love adventure and puzzles, then I highly recommend Iris.Fall.
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