Fracter Review: Finding Your Light In The Dark
As the credits rolled in my evening with the puzzle adventure game Fracter from 4L Games, I came to the quick realization that this was a game I desperately needed in a year that has been filled with anxiety, depression, and guttural fear of the unknown. At first glance, Fracter appears as if it could be a generic clone of Inside or Limbo, possible one that would pale in comparison to the masterful Playdead formula. But as you play through the opening moments, there is one key difference that becomes abundantly clear; you are not following the story of an imaginative character. This is a game is about the person holding the controller.
Presentation
Let’s address that first glance, shall we? Fracter’s art direction very much borrows what makes both Limbo and Inside visually striking. From Limbo, it borrows the black and white aesthetic which delivers the darkest of blacks and popping whites, blending it with greyscale characters reacting to the stark darkness. From Inside, it borrows the faceless clay-like character models that are horrifying, yet almost cute in their own Tim Burton-esque way. I can’t help but to think of the “can I copy your homework/sure, but make it look different” meme upon reflecting on this. The second half of that meme comes in the form of an isometric camera angle and glowing eyes on the character models.
All of this being said, it works. It works very well, actually. Throughout your journey, you are navigating a staggeringly dark and intimidating labyrinth. The game quickly develops it own identity in the opening moments, showcasing the labyrinths black, towering architecture radiating with white glows. The utilization of light and the games static camera prevails in showcasing depth and scale, creating a dire sense of isolation. While other isometric titles tend to give off the sense of playing inside a diorama, Fracter successfully sinks you into an endless abyss, surrounding you with a spectral ambient score, stirring up dread of not knowing what’s ahead on your journey towards the light.
Gameplay
The brilliance of Fracter’s gameplay lies in its simplicity. Throughout your journey, you find yourself navigating through seven dungeons of the labyrinth. Each dungeon serves as a puzzle room with its own unique attributes. The core mechanic of manipulating light through reflections and moveable light sources serves as the base for each dungeon. When this begins to feel a bit too easy or repetitive, the next dungeon introduces a brand new element. Some of these new elements may include manipulating a platform's height or humanoid creatures hunting you down, building upon that core base with each new dungeon you approach. While this may sound basic, the later dungeons pose a respectful challenge when the game throws every element it has to offer at you simultaneously within one puzzle.
While it may sound as if the late game becomes infuriating with overwhelming puzzles, this is not the case. The puzzles are deigned in such a clever manner that never lead you to frustration or discouragement. As you enter a dungeon, you are met with the cliche initial grief of not knowing how you’re going to approach the room. But the puzzles strike the perfect balance of presenting a challenge while still treating you fairly. I am not the type of person who finds much success in puzzle games. But with Fracter, I may have only found myself stumped for a few minutes before reaching my lightbulb moment. If you do find yourself completing puzzles with ease, each dungeon does have the additional challenge of collectibles you can hunt down. And if you’re successful in finding all of the collectables, the game will reward you with a fantastic and satisfying final sequence. We’ll get to that a bit later in this review.
The only moments I did feel a slight sense of frustration were due to the games controls. The game’s mobile sensibilities do briefly seep through the cracks at times when playing with a controller. This was most apparent with puzzles requiring you to rotate platforms. A platform may have multiple similar looking light sources placed on different spots upon it. For this example, let’s say I needed to rotate the platform so a light source on the right ends up on the bottom. The rotation control would over-sensitively respond to the analog stick and I would lose my place, confusing myself as to which light source I was trying to move. Throughout my time with each puzzle, I never figured out how to avoid this. I’d imagine playing on mobile with a touch screen or PC with a mouse to rotate platforms by hand would feel more intuitive, but I personally wish the Switch version was adjusted to include a notch-like movement system. These specific puzzles are the only instances I found frustration in the controls. Maneuvering your character feels great with analog sticks, and working out the other elements of each puzzle did not pose any issues.
Story
What makes Fracter stand out as one of my favorite experiences this year is the way it handles its narrative. On a surface level, it doesn’t do much in telling a story of an external third-party character. Instead, it approaches story in a similar fashion to what thatgamecompany achieved with 2012’s Journey. If you haven’t played Journey yet, please go play Journey. I won’t spoil anything regarding that masterpiece here. But what I will say, as I alluded to in my introduction, is that this is your story. The best way I can review the story here is by expressing how I reacted upon completing the game in a spoiler-free fashion.
2020 has been an unabashedly terrible year. I don’t mean to bring my personal experiences to this review, but like so many human beings around the world, I have not been in the best physical, mental, and emotional state lately. Expressing this loosely will help properly articulate what my honest reaction to the narrative was upon completion.
Fracter is a game about self-reflection, and it makes that crystal clear as you begin the game with an on-the-nose cinematic moment. The collectables I referred to earlier are starkly illuminated pieces of yourself that have escaped into the darkness of the labyrinth. While traversing each puzzle, as you’re hanging onto that anxious feeling of the unknown, you will catch glimpses of yourself in the distance. As I reunited myself with… myself for the first time, it felt as if a small portion of a weight has been lifted; as if someone reminded me everything was going to be okay. After this first collectible, I made it a point to find every single one before completing a dungeon.
In the later portions of the game, you are introduced to enemies who will hunt you down in an absolutely terrifying manner. These enemies look very familiar, as they are dark versions of your character. Upon our first meeting, I joking thought of them as my Dark Link or Dark Samus. But then they dropped on all fours and rapidly scurried towards me like the children of Rom, The Vacuous Spider and the fear properly set in. When caught, my character staggered, cringed over, and morphed into what I was running from. These creatures, these dark pieces of yourself, are representative of your everyday anxieties, fears, and worries you are constantly running from. You see a glimmer of hope in the distance, represented by the illuminated collectables, but it is surround by this negative energy that attempts to take over you as you reach for that sense of hope. There are moments where you can use the light around you to temporarily eliminate the darkness. In the context of the game, this means using the puzzle elements as weapons to temporarily extinguish creatures. But like the anxieties you may face in your daily life, they will always come back in attempt to get you as you no matter how hard you drive towards the light.
As I briefly touched on while discussing gameplay, successfully finding every collectable rewards you with a stunning and satisfying mechanic when approaching the final maze. Again, I will not spoil that moment here. I found myself smiling and cheering at my television screen during this sequence as it eloquently placed a positive period on the final sentence of my story. Without these collectibles, I can’t imagine how terrified and discouraged I may have felt. I honestly believe I wouldn’t be as high on this game as I am now without this triumphant moment. You can argue that it shouldn’t be a missable moment tied to optional collectables, but it being a direct result of my actions is what made it special. It made me feel that no matter how dark things are in the present, I will eventually prevail and make it through to the other side.
Breakdown
Game: Fracter
Developer: 4L Games
Availability:
Mobile (July 13, 2018)
Steam (September 5, 2019)
Nintendo Switch (October 22, 2020)
Reviewed on Nintendo Switch (docked with pro controller)
Runtime: 2-3 hours
Pros:
+ Accessible puzzles for player who may not be puzzle-savvy
+ Stunning presentation in its black and white aesthetic
+ A tight experience you can complete in an evening
+ The self-reflective narrative striking at the perfect moment in time
Cons:
- Unless you need to go back for collectables, there is minimal replayability
- Mechanics designed for mobile are slightly flawed with a controller
Final Thoughts
My evening with Fracter is one that will stick with me for a long time as I reflect back on this year. It’s an experience that honestly helped me cope with what has been circulating in my mind and building throughout this quarantine. This is the game I needed in 2020 in particular, but even in a perfect world, this is an experience I would highly suggest to anyone feeling troubled, anxious, depressed, or doubtful towards themselves. And even if you are feeling perfectly okay, as a video game, it’s still a greatly satisfying puzzle adventure with a fair challenge for players of all levels.
Review written by Mike Towndrow