REalM: Walk of Soul is a beautiful 2D puzzle platforming adventure, that sees you playing a 17 year old girl who is trapped in a surreal nightmare world.
First thing’s first, as a puzzle platformer REalM is terrible, there’s a distinct lack of direction around the game and your movement animations are VERY slow and clunky. As you progress through the game you’ll unlock new powers, but as most of the world is open to you from the start, it’s easy to overlook them and enter areas that are near impossible. For the moment, rest assured that if you enter an area and die a lot, it’s most likely because you need to unlock a new power first (Hint: after unlocking your first power at the tree, examine the book on your right first).
It’s easy to forgive these shortcomings (though hopefully they’ll be fixed in future builds), when you see the fantastically surreal artwork on display. REalM: Walk of Soul‘s dream world is not a nice place to be, but it sure is beautiful. There’s an unsettling, horror-like atmosphere, with a world full of Dali-esque surreal artwork and freaky creatures that you can’t help but stare at in morbid fascination.
As a piece of surreal audio/visual art REalM: Walk of Soul is fantastic, the craftsmanship that’s gone into creating the world is astounding. It’s a shame that at the moment the gameplay falls flat, but they’ve got plenty of time to fix that. Here’s hoping that they do, because I’d really love to explore more of this beautiful nightmare.
Watch our playthrough of the first 15 mins HERE
Vote for REalM: Walk os Soul on the Square Enix Collective HERE
Download the Beta Demo HERE (Hint: 1,2,3, etc. are used to switch between powers)