Family First

Released in 2022, Somerville is a puzzle-adventure game created by Jumpship. Co-Founded by Dino Patti, who also happened to co-found Playdead (responsible for titles such as Inside and Limbo), Jumpship's debut game focuses on a father that is separated from his family during an extraterrestrial event. As I continue to play games in 2025 that are several years old, we're going to jump into the world of Somerville and see what it has to offer.

Rig, settings, ancillaries...

As always, some quick insight into some things that affect my playthrough and could, likely do, make it subjective. As always, your mileage may vary. My rig specs:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5700x
• RAM: 32gb Corsair Vengeance DDR4 3600mhz CL18
• Drive: 2TB Crucial P310 SSD NVMe Gen4 PCIe
• GPU: Gigabyte RX9070 OC Edition (hard flashed with 9070XT BIOS)
• 1440p 21:9 Ultrawide non-oled monitor w/ HDR

I think it should be noted that I maxed all settings, used no mods, and found the game in the November 2024 steam sale for less than $4 USD.

Garbage Pail Kid

As the game opens, we're treated to a cinematic drone-style shot of a car winding its way through a green and idyllic countryside. Eventually, after some opening credits, we see the car pull into a cozy homestead with a few other small houses dotting the distant landscape. As the family exits the vehicle we see the father, mother, child, and dog (yes there's a dog in the game and yes you CAN pet him, yaaaaasss) all happily sauntering towards the house. The child runs to his father who lovingly embraces him and holds him high. This is our opening to the world of Somerville. Just a happy little family returning home from a day at the farmers market or a walk in the park. We don't really know. The game introduces us to some of the basic control mechanics as we awaken some hours later as the child (our parents slumber on the couch). We figure out how to move, climb, open things, and even how to use and aim light sources. Very quickly there's an unsettling sense that something isn't right. We can see lights from an unknown source shining in the windows as our parents still snore contentedly on the couch. Mechanical sounds and whirring, probing taps play at the house's exterior. There's a garbled broadcast that comes across the TV that, all to closely, resembles an emergency broadcast system announcement. Still playing the child we make our way to a window to open it, only to fall into a garbage bin in the kitchen causing us to cry out. This wakes our parents finally and we quickly assume the role of the father. Having missed the broadcast and, the probing kerfuffle outside seemingly abated, we trudge to the basement to begin feeding the dog as our wife and son retreat to the bathroom for a rinse off. These are our last peaceful moments in the game.

The visual and emotive style of Somerville will resonate with players familiar with games like Limbo and Inside. We observe our characters from a predominantly side view and the world is rich in contrasts both of color and light.

War of the Worlds

I'll avoid going into too much more detail around the story and game here in case any of you haven't played it, but plan to. So let's go with the super fast, very broad version of events. Very quickly our idyllic world devolves into chaos as alien spires rain down from the sky. An alien craft crashes directly into our basement, we touch it and it's occupant (probably not the best idea). Boom explosion. Our heart stops. Our family cries. Our family leaves. Our dog stays. Our newly acquired alien power restarts our heart. Boom, we're alive. Yay. But our family is gone. Not so yay. But we still have our dog. Yay.

To escape the crumbling basement of our home, we are introduced to a fundamental game mechanic. Our newly acquired alien power, harnessed in our right arm, can interact with light sources and essentially liquefy the alien material that is now pervasive in the world.

As we head out with our dog we can see the world in shambles. The landscape is littered with alien spires and we begin the journey to regroup with our family wherever they may have gone.

Where oh where can my baby be

Over the next several hours we are treated with some beautiful, if depressing, visuals of a world that is a shade of its former self. We traverse scenes reminiscent of the Walking Dead minus the zombies. Empty cars abandoned on the highway. An entire campground completely evacuated save for a few poor souls. There's even a moment when we crest the side of hill and can only sit on an abandoned bench with our dog and marvel at the ruin this alien event has wrought. On us. On the world. At every turn we are using our puzzle solving skills to interact with the environment in such a way as to progress to the next area. Our powers allow us to tap into light poles and power boxes to melt away obstacles. We may need to re-align power cables to start a generator so we can charge a car battery. Or maybe we just need to run for our lives as a giant alien spotlight that evaporates human flesh like water scours the landscape. Regardless, we begin to form a bond with our silent father character. There's no dialog. No voice-overs. In some ways, this works to make our hero that much more tragic. He doesn't voice his fear, or his worry, or his pain. He shows it. He wears it. With every fall, with every misstep, and with every harsh encounter our hero begins to run a little slower, walk with more of limp, and hold his side a little more intensely as we suffer more and more despair. But we don't give up. We can't.

It's the end of the world as we know it...and I feel fine

As we progress through the various chapters of Somerville I'd be lying if I told you that the story becomes more clear. I think, by it's nature, Somerville is the kind of game where, for each player, there's a fair amount of subjective interpretation to the game. It's clear there's a catastrophic world event that's occurred. But it's cause, the meaning, the opposing sides, and even the realness of world itself (simulation?) are not so evident. At points in the game we meet alien characters that could be described as "good". In a sense they offer aid or relief of some kind. There are even allusions to thematic mirroring in the story as we find there are 3 characters that could be interpreted as mirrors to our father, mother, and child characters. All this to say that while at it's core, the game centers around an apocalyptic alien event, the meaning behind all of it is far more nuanced. The game clearly plays on themes of humanity and family in the darkest of hours, but interestingly and ironically, the game also plays with themes of communication. I say ironically, because again, the game has absolutely no dialog. As we struggle to survive and find our family, we the player, must begin to grapple with what this new world is and how we fit within it. Seemingly, we are the only human that has some kind of connection to the aliens through our newly acquired powers. The weight of that begins to wear heavy.

Wrap Up

I paid less than $4 USD for Somerville. I'd say I got my money's worth. The game is pretty and has some fairly breathtaking segments. The art design is mostly on point in my opinion capturing equal parts emotion, beauty, despair, and redemption. The gameplay is a mix of action/adventure elements with puzzle solving. The puzzles are mostly environmental, requiring you to use your various powers to either liquefy or solidify (gained later in the game) the alien material that has covered the world. There are exciting interactive chase scenes and deafening moments of silence and despair. The game has multiple endings, but it's worth noting that the "best" ending is quite difficult to get. At least, difficult to get on your own. As I mentioned earlier, the creators insert a theme of communication into the game and this plays a key part in how to achieve the "best" ending. Honestly, I just looked up how to do it. I don't think I'm smart enough to suss out how to speak an alien language during a 5-6 hour game. At the end of the day, I don't regret playing Somerville. I realize that doesn't sound particularly praiseworthy, so allow me to expand on that. Somerville, at a reduced cost, could be something you should try. Just bear in mind - Somerville isn't Inside. Somerville isn't Limbo. The overarching goal of finding your family works through most of the game. However, some of the later story elements are abstract and by definition not obvious. The game's themes are open to interpretation and while that can be interesting, it can often lead to a deflationary sense of accomplishment when completing a game that is built in this way. That all too familiar what did I just play feeling. Lastly, while most, if not all, of the puzzles in Limbo and Inside feel intuitive and provide viable feedback to the player; Somerville bucks that convention, often leaving a player to feel lost as to next logical steps to progress. Somerville does have a dog though. And you can pet him. And that's not nothing.

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