Close to the Sun

Close to the Sun's plotline seems familiar (if not secondary). So, the end of the XX century. Nikola Tesla did learn how to transmit electricity wirelessly, and this discovery made him incredibly wealthy.

Being a man of science, Nikola Tesla understood that states with all their patents and other registrations only hinder progress. Therefore, he built a huge ship, on which he transferred all interested scientists. Under these conditions, they could study, create, experiment and push scientific knowledge forward in every possible way. And to make scientists feel like an elite, the interior of the ship "Helios" is made in the style of Art Deco.

In 1897, Rose Archer, a journalist, arrives on "Helios". She is looking for her sister Ada. She, going to the "Helios", wrote a very disturbing letter. Arriving on the ship, Rose discovers that almost all of its passengers are dead, ghosts roam the decks, and the phrases “Time is not a river” and “The circle must be broken” are written on the walls in blood.

Somehow without delight

Close to the Sun is a 3D quest that is wrapped in a horror package. That is, they periodically try to frighten the player in different ways - from abruptly slamming doors with a bloody inscription "Quarantine!" to monsters or assassins with a knife running out from around the corner. At the same time, the heroine herself is journalism, that is, she cannot use pistols, melee weapons, or at least a stool. So there is nothing to oppose to the monsters. But they still don't read newspapers.

But the player will have to read, and a lot. Scattered across all locations are dozens, hundreds, thousands of notes, pieces of paper, publications and other posters. They reveal the plot of the game, details about the experiment that took place, the peculiarities of the life of local scientists and other interesting things from the environment. In this, Close to the Sun even manages to surpass Control or Quantum Break - and in the latter there was an incredibly cool fan-graphomaniac script for the movie "The Knife of Time", which was suggested to be read by the player!

The puzzles are quite familiar and are not designed for members of the Mensa society. And in numerous notes and notes there are tips for completing quests. In addition, the developers themselves have left room for those who doubt their intellectual abilities. The necessary keys are almost always in the neighboring rooms, the switches are also nearby, and the activation procedures for the switches are written on pieces of paper nearby. In this, by the way, Close to the Sun also resembles Control - there the answers for the puzzles were always on the puzzles themselves and were written.

World and environment Close to the Sun

The main advantage of Close to the Sun is the scenery. The ship "Helios" is actually incredibly beautiful - even a walk along some corridor is purely aesthetic pleasure. The Art Deco style is complemented by elements of steampunk, and in some areas, noir also wakes up, due to which you instantly plunge into the atmosphere of luxury of the late 19th century, you want to immediately put on a school suit and find a mouthpiece. A beautiful soundtrack enhances the effect.

Some scenes are also commendable. When you see a scientist hanging in a luxurious bath, you begin to mentally curse the half-crazy Tesla, who, with his experiments, destroyed the space-time continuum.

Monsters, killers and ghosts roam the world. The latter are especially numerous - but at the same time they are absolutely safe. For the sake of interest, you can even go through one of them - nothing will happen. Moreover, the heroine at the very beginning destroys the main illusion - as soon as she sees this very ghost, she asks herself - “What is this? Vision of the past? " Everything. After that, you begin to treat the ghosts-visions of the past calmly and indifferently.

Close to the Sun Gameplay

At first glance, Close to the Sun appears to be a walking simulator. Moreover, most of the time you just have to go for walks on the steampunk ship. The first puzzles appear only about 15-30 minutes after the start of the gameplay.

The heroine can do just about anything. She knows how to press buttons, pull switches and run away from monsters. Rose Archer does not own weapons or anything else. So you have to click on the buttons to run away from the monsters, and then click on the buttons again.

Sometimes Close to the Sun throws in really interesting episodes. But they are rare.

Close to the Sun is worth playing mainly for the environment. It's really cool - sophisticated, beautiful, varied and unusual. For example, already in the sixth chapter, the heroine is thrown into the Bolshoi Theater - and he is beautiful. But don't expect some incredible levels of horror or tricky multi-layered puzzles.